Midland Insurance Brokers has functioned as a family-owned and operated business for more than 30 years, priding themselves on providing professional, personal and authentic insurance advice and service to Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Midland commenced in 1986 as Cilmi Insurance Brokers, with aspirations for the company to be seen by their clients as an honest, reliable and professional insurance adviser with service excellence. And it turns out these values have served the company well, with strong client growth and retention, coupled with a strong reputation across the industry for good business ethics and a personal approach to clients.

Over the last 5 years alone, Midland has doubled their number of staff, currently employing 50 staff across offices in Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula, Sydney and Perth, with plans in place to open offices in Queensland and South Australia to help better serve their growing client base.

In addition to providing a full range of general insurance products, Midland have also worked with various insurance companies to develop a suite of tailored insurance programs specifically for the industries below. Creating these programs has enabled Midland to negotiate additional benefits and exclusive discounts for their clients.

• Shop & office fitters
• Breweries and distilleries
• Cideries & kombucha manufacturers
• Photography & film
• Self-storage
• Transport workers
• Landscapers

The shop and office fitting industry is one of the more highly valued industries at the company, and it’s clear to see why. Midland’s relationship with the industry dates back over 10 years through Nationwide Insurance Brokers, who merged with Midland in 2018. From that point, Midland increased its connection with the Australian Shop & Office Fitting Industry Association (ASOFIA) by becoming a National Principal Partner.

This partnership strengthened Midland’s range of policies to cater perfectly for the needs of ASOFIA members. A robust policy can be customised to cover everything those in the industry might need, including insurance for a property or factory, public liability, contract works, transit, motor vehicle, plant & equipment, professional indemnity or management liability insurance.

Because of the support shown by ASOFIA and its members to date, Midland continue to support the industry each year by investing into the association as National Principle Partners, as well as attending national conferences and events. The strength of Midland’s relationship with ASOFIA has created a relationship that is highly valued and will continue to be so for many years to come.

Throughout his successful tenure at Midland, Terry Lane accrued countless achievements, one of which was the coveted Lex McKeown trophy in 2014. Awarded by the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA), Terry was recognised for his outstanding service and contribution to the industry. Although he could have probably won the award on account of his larger-than-life personality alone.

Terry was heavily involved in educating the industry and promoting how SMEs could benefit from using an insurance broker. For starters, insurance brokers:

• are independent of insurers
• provide unbiased and impartial advice
• negotiate better premiums & conditions
• explain all aspects of your policy
• offer a wide range of plans
• provide extensive market expertise
• save you considerable time and effort
• meet with you face to face
• help with making a claim
• help with employee education & contract renewal

He also had a knack for being able to communicate and simplify the complexities of insurance contracts to his clients. Uncomplicating the complex has been instilled in the company’s culture to this day and has subsequently become the company’s brand tagline.

Since Terry’s passing in 2018, his two sons, Damien and Justin, stepped up to take over the reins of the business, both of whom have been committed in maintaining the culture, values and business acumen that have been the backbone of Midland’s service offering to clients and insurers for the last 30 years.

As Justin sees it, “even though we’ve taken on more of a leadership and managerial role over the last couple of years, we still love being brokers and we will always make time to meet with our clients”.

For Damien, he finds “our terrific staff, our expertise and our simplified approach that we take with our clients is what makes Midland unique”.

For brother’s who work together, they not only complement each other’s skillset, they show that they have the drive and the ability to ensure the success of Midland’s future.

In order to help bring Midland further into the insurance industry spotlight, they have recently given their brand a refresh after 20 years. Damien states, “with the launch of an updated logo, colour suite and new website, we are determined to showcase Midland as a progressive and modern competitor in the insurance broker market”.

And although COVID-19 has played havoc on the operations of many SMEs around the country, Midland’s staff have been lucky enough to maintain ‘business as usual’ operations.

“Thankfully, it’s been a fairly seamless transition for us. We place great trust in our staff, and other than having to adapt to working from home and replacing face-to-face client meetings with Zoom or Skype, the Midland team has been able to continue serving clients remotely”, says Damien.

How the COVID-19 pandemic will impact the overall insurance industry moving forward is yet to be seen. But considering a brokers’ bread and butter revolves around risk management and adapting to change, Midland look to remain focused on doing what they do best – uncomplicating the complex world of insurance for their clients, tailoring policies to suit the individual needs of businesses….and holding on to the pipe dream that Carlton will win another premiership.