How did you get into the insurance business as a transaction broker?
It’s all about networking. REassurance’s managing director David Yearn was looking for someone to start in the Czech Republic and potentially Slovakia. He believes in having local people in local markets. He doesn’t want a Polish broker dealing with Czech deals. So he was looking for someone locally and my name came up. I was thinking about doing something that uses my legal background but with more business development and meeting people. This was a great fit because I get to do both.
A legal degree never hurts, but how did that help you get going here?
I have a transactional legal background. I’ve been in real estate for more than 10 years and a real estate lawyer since 2019. I was a transactional lawyer and did asset management as well. I find it really helpful to look at the transaction and the whole asset cycle from different perspectives. That’s where a lot of added value comes in. You’re not only looking at what happens during the transaction, but also what happens when you own the building.
It’s very exciting. I love to start really early on the deal because then you help the whole way through. Especially in deals where the transaction insurance makes a huge difference, that’s very rewarding. It’s also just a way for me to go out into the market and get the deal — that’s very satisfying. Especially since we’re the newcomer, with the less-established brand.
It sounds like before you were working on deals that other people brought to you. Now you’re out there, hunting on your own.
Exactly. When I was a transactional or real estate lawyer, I was doing prep work or sitting in meetings with a partner who got the deal. In asset management, we had landlord reps, so it wasn’t us going out. Now it’s me. It’s very satisfying to start from scratch. But it’s not just the transaction. I’m trying to build long-standing relationships with clients so I can help with the whole portfolio. They know they can call anytime. I think that’s very helpful.
Walk me through how a typical deal comes together in transaction insurance.
There are only a couple of options. Either very early on the client knows they want a clean exit, or they need to wind down the company after closing, or there’s some issue they need to secure. They might not want to give a corporate guarantee, so they’re looking for options. If they think of this early on and then I’m involved from the start. If there’s an issue that comes up and we solve it through transactional insurance.
How can insurance speed up a transaction?
Because you know early on that you don’t have to negotiate a lot of things in the SPA. The time limits, the financial limits, the baskets, all of those are usually covered by the insurance. The seller can wind down, and the buyer is okay with that, because they have the insurance company on the other side with a robust process for claims. Usually both sides end up satisfied.
If we come in later in a transaction because of specific risk that can’t be mitigated, that’s where you help overcome deal breakers.
What are the different products you offer?
There’s title insurance that secures your title to shares or real estate, including any identified title risks. Then there’s W&I insurance, warranty and indemnity, which secures the seller’s warranties in the SPA up to a limit. There’s also tax insurance, which secures tax risks above certain thresholds that you might not cover under W&I.
How has title insurance changed over the years?
The product has evolved a lot. It used to be a very formal product you got if there was an issue, so it acted more of a risk management tool, often connected with restitution proceedings. Now it’s more commercially minded. It’s also a financial tool because you save on lawyers’ fees since you don’t have to negotiate the SPA as much. For the seller, they get a clean exit. They can wind down the company rather than keeping the structure for seven years to warrant the fundamental warranties. More broadly, it’s moved on from being a very formal, fairly expensive tool to one that’s not so expensive anymore. We can do smaller deals and it’s more commercially minded.
Do Czech companies and international companies use it to the same degree?
Definitely not. Foreign entities usually use it a lot more. They’re used to it from their home countries. Czech clients know the old product from 10 or 15 years ago, which was expensive and more of a risk management tool. But as a Czech entity that understood the local risks, they usually didn’t need it unless there was a big issue.
Increasingly, Czech clients are going abroad where the other party required it, so they experience what’s essentially a completely new product. The pricing is way down. Once we explain it’s not only risk management but a financial tool, and they use it and find it’s a smooth process, they become more willing to use it again.
Just to be clear, they’re not buying the insurance from you. Explain where Reassurance sits in the food chain.
We’re a broker. We get all the information from the client, like the pricing and the insurance coverage from the insurers, both title and W&I. Then we prepare what we call an MBI report where we show the different options, different pricing, and propose what we feel is the best solution for the transaction. We take into account how the SPA or transaction is structured, what the due diligence findings are, and what both sides require.
How many other brokers are your clients typically talking to?
Usually you have only one insurance broker. The insurance companies have to give the same quote for the same deal. It’s not like they can give Reassurance a quote that’s 10% less than someone else, unless we present a different set of options. Technically you can shop for brokers before they go out and talk to the insurers. It’s not a cutthroat business. We’ll all try to get a deal. But I have to say the competition is very professional. Once you get the mandate, everyone else steps back.
How has the market changed even since you joined three years ago?
When I joined, I knew about five transactions and maybe one was insured, usually for some specific reason like a fund winding down. Now out of five transactions, maybe three are insured. The use of the product has accelerated as it’s become more commercial and more reasonably priced, even for smaller deals.
Which sectors are the busiest for you?
Everybody’s talking about residential, but that’s difficult for transactional insurance because at the end you have individual units. But built-to-rent is new, and we see a lot of BTR and student housing in Poland. I’m waiting to see if that comes here as well.
Poland uses insurance much more than the Czech Republic, partly because they’re much more funded by foreign entities. Here it’s about 90% Czech capital. In Poland it’s like 90% foreign capital. I sometimes see trends coming from Poland to the Czech Republic. In any case, for transactional insurance, it’s really logistics, office, and retail right now.
Do you think this year will be bigger than last, and next year bigger still?
I think it may be. We had a huge year in 2025, but I don’t think we’re slowing down in the next two years. What we saw last year was a lot of smaller deals in the first half and big ones in Q4. Now it’s been pretty consistent throughout the year. Small deals, big deals, mid-sized deals. It’s more of a mix rather than being weighted toward the end. We’ll see what Q4 brings.
Anna Vondrackova is Senior Transaction Advisor for REassurance
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