With offices in Opatija and Zadar, Marine Insurance Services provide a number of marine insurance services to their clients with an individual approach, and among them, complete insurance packages for vessels and yacht crews
Ana Biagini was born in Zagreb, but her career began in Opatija, where she got her first job in marine insurance, quite unexpectedly. Today, she is the successful owner of Marine Insurance Services, one of the leading agents on the marine insurance market. We talked to Ana about her path to success.
HOW DID YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THE MARINE INSURANCE BUSINESS?
I spent my summers on a sailboat with my parents, sailing the Adriatic. Our base port was Opatija, and it was there that I met my first employer, owner of the marine insurance agency where I worked until 2013. In my daily communication with clients over the years, I have recognized the need to expand available coverage packages beyond the framework of marine insurance.
My law degree helped me better understand insurance conditions, and explain the process better to our clients. At the same time, I was developing the idea of combining all the needs of yacht owners in one comprehensive insurance package. In 2015, I decided it was time to try to strike it on my own, to put to use my knowhow and experience in creating a special, unique marine insurance package. I founded my own insurance agency, with headquarters in Split and central office in Opatija.
As my business idea proved to be extremely effective, my next logical step was growth, so we opened an office in Zadar. Both office locations are related to our guiding principle: individual approach to each client. Many of our clients anchor their yachts in Opatija and Zadar, and many other use marinas in Istria and central and southern Dalmatia, so those two offices cover the entire coast. At the moment we have more than 400 clients, some of whom own several vessels.
WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIALS OF YOUR BUSINESS?
Our goal is always client satisfaction, and our path there is through individual approach. With our joint experience and constant effort to understand the needs of clients, we tailor our services and packages to our clients’ specific needs from the very beginning of cooperation. The advantage of this approach is recognizing and predicting opportunities to take advantage of everything the market offers at any given moment, for maximum benefit of our clients.
We research the current market offer on behalf of our clients, to make sure they get the best possible package. The key to our success is our ability to cover all our clients’ needs, finding full coverage packages, including risks our clients were not aware of.
YOU ALSO OFFER CREW INSURANCE.
Our extensive experience allowed us to recognize the need to include crew insurance in our packages, allowing boat owners to spend all their energy on carefree cruising. Crew insurance is an additional coverage that is not commonly included in standard marine insurance packages, with the exception of accidents, and only in most difficult situations.
Our packages include coverage for crew members in the event of emergency medical care, hospitalization, onboard accidents and accidents ashore, 24 hours a day. We have combined travel and health and accident insurance into one package.
HOW DOES INSURANCE FOR SMALLER VESSELS DIFFER FROM INSURANCE FOR LARGER VESSELS?
Smaller vessels are usually purchased for private use, and their owners take care of them by themselves, including managing the vessels. Those vessels are mostly in use in summer, and spend the rest of the year in marinas. Large vessels like superyachts require an entire crew to operate, so the scope of insurance coverage is bigger.
Larger vessels require wider coverage, at different prices, optional liability insurance is more extensive, accident insurance covers a larger number of people, and crew insurance is standard.
DO YOU OFFER ANY ADDITIONAL SERVICES, LIKE A 24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE?
Absolutely; this is one of the advantages of doing business with us. After all, we are the ones that clients contact, who they turn to for help. We maintain daily communication with clients, exchange information regularly, keeping track of all changes and possible additional needs, all to make sure that insurance coverage is complete at all times. The insurer must be informed about the vessel’s movement, seeing how each country has different rules of limits for mandatory insurance and various fees.
Therefore we have to constantly keep updating the package, to make sure everything is taken care of. Our personalized approach is based on constant and detailed cooperation as basis for mutual satisfaction.
Photo Mario Jelavić
