About
About Steve Smart
Steve Smart has spent more than 40 years in general insurance, with experience spanning broking, underwriting, legal practice, senior insurance management and consumer claims disputes. He began his career on the broking floor at Lloyd’s of London in 1980, working as a broker and underwriter before qualifying as a solicitor and practising at Dentons.
In 1999, Steve joined AIG in the UK as General Counsel. He went on to spend around a decade on the senior management team, leading legal, compliance and company-secretarial functions and advising the UK board. He later served as Chief Executive Officer of the group’s UK consumer-lines distribution business.
His industry work has also extended beyond individual firms. Steve chaired the International Underwriters Association’s Legal & Regulatory Committee and has served as a committee member of the Bank of England’s Financial Markets Law Committee. He is a regular commentator on consumer insurance and rejected claims, including on LBC’s Money Hour.
Across his career, Steve saw the same types of insurance disputes arise repeatedly: claims refused because of policy wording, exclusions, technical evidence, questions of causation or alleged failures by the policyholder. He documented recurring refusal patterns together with the arguments, legal principles and Financial Ombudsman decisions that could be relevant when challenging them. That accumulated work helped form the basis of SmarterClaims, which he co-founded to make specialist insurance-claims knowledge more accessible to consumers.
At ConsumerWise, Steve contributes specialist guidance on insurance claims, rejected claims, policy wording and exclusions, evidence and causation, complaint strategy and Financial Ombudsman escalation. His contributions are published under his own name and kept distinct from ConsumerWise house-authored guidance.