Blog: Regional broking is an essential part of the intermediated market

Regional broking is an essential part of the intermediated insurance market. In fact, it is the most meaningful and effective way for insurers to support regional markets through local offices. Regional offices bring insurers closer to both brokers and customers, and the value and importance of local trading relationships and knowledge cannot be underestimated.

A regional broker provides a key unique selling point to their clients, which starts from the very first face-to-face meeting. Often, when visiting a client’s premises in person, the broker can immediately identify exposures and risks that the client may not realise they have. As they consolidate this detailed knowledge for presentation to insurers, they close information gaps, which facilitates more accurate underwriting and pricing, and a greater availability of capacity.

Client’s needs

As a result of this close working relationship, and the detailed understanding of their client’s needs, regional brokers can be highly adept at matching suitable products to support the effective risk transfer of exposures that an organisation may carry. They can complement their unique client knowledge with their understanding of the local area, community and economy to address the specific needs of a business.

They can apply their expertise, knowledge, and relationships to securing tailored solutions, even for customers who – at face value – may appear to be more difficult to insure.

This approach spans beyond traditional insurance risk. Brokers will also look to understand the client’s broader financial situation, levels of financial security, succession planning, and many other factors that could have a subsequent effect on the wider business and its insurance needs. In doing so, they can often be the first to identify new and emerging trends across a variety of trades and industries, which insurers may choose to respond to by way of new products and services where appropriate.

Broker relationships with insurers

Broker relationships with insurers also play a key role in providing effective support for clients. Insurance is a people business and while digitalisation is important to free up decision-makers and provide frictionless service, its application should aim to streamline processes that create capacity for greater human interaction.

Strong broker relationships with insurers provide customers with greater choice and wider access to the insurance market, enabling more enterprise and, thereby, a greater contribution to the local economy. They also provide insurers with distribution reach and the ability for insurer products to be more readily accessed by a greater number of regional businesses.

Regional brokers will provide a highly personalised service when customers may be at their most vulnerable – at the point of claim. This not only saves a client time and unnecessary worry, but can also expedite reinstatement and help get the business operational again more quickly if the worst happens.”

Regional brokers will provide a highly personalised service when customers may be at their most vulnerable – at the point of claim. This not only saves a client time and unnecessary worry, but can also expedite reinstatement and help get the business operational again more quickly if the worst happens. Whether that be a large loss incident or a catastrophic event such as large-scale flooding, for many customers these are one-off occurrences and not something they have faced before. These brokers are often among the first to the scene, and can work alongside loss assessors while helping clients to  navigate the immediate aftermath.

Brokers can support clients with the damage assessment and claims processes, streamlining the overall process of recovery and support indemnity payments being provided quickly. This can be invaluable when communities are trying to rebuild after a major incident.

In smaller regions, local businesses can sometimes struggle to absorb the losses following a significant weather event, so they will rely heavily on timely reinstatement activity, which can in turn result in a faster recovery for local economic activity.