Lloyd's Agents

The insurance certificate for a cargo shipped from Shanghai to Le Havre often carries a printed line: in the event of loss or damage, apply immediately to the nearest Lloyd's Agent. The instruction comes from a network Lloyd's organized in the early nineteenth century, out of the correspondents based in ports who reported arrivals, sailings and wrecks for Lloyd's List, published since 1734. Today the network counts several hundred agents and sub-agents in most of the world's ports and trading centers. They are local firms, survey practices or shipping agencies, which Lloyd's appoints without employing. Their trade, in marine and cargo, is the survey. They go to the quay or the warehouse, measure the damage, state its probable cause, write a survey report and, on request, a certificate of loss that the consignee or the insurer will produce in support of the claim. They work for whoever instructs them, syndicate, company or receiver, and charge a fee that the insurer generally reimburses when the claim is covered. Everything turns on timing. Damaged goods deteriorate, get sold off or vanish, and a survey carried out ten days after discharge lets the carrier dispute when the damage happened, and with it the recovery. The survey is no admission of cover: the agent describes, the insurer decides, unless the agent has an express settling authority for small claims. Not to be confused with the managing agent, who runs a syndicate, or with the members' agent, who represents the capital providers.