Ageas stresses broker support over referrals

Ageas managing director Mark Cliff stressed today that the insurer was not trying to stop brokers earning referral fee income.

The Insurance Institute for Brokers (IIB) issued a bulletin last week saying it was concerned Ageas stance on referral fees “could prevent the broker from referring claimants to outside claims handling services and require the broker to refer all third party claimants to Ageas.”

But Cliff said Ageas merely wanted to know whether brokers have their own arrangements over first notification of loss (FNOL) or use the insurer’s arrangements.

This would help Ageas have a better grip on understanding where the claims are coming from, he said.

Cliff said: “This is not linked to referral fees in anyway at all. We are not trying to stop brokers obtaining referral fees. We just want to know is whether they use our FNOL our have their own arrangements.”

Ageas has sent out its TOBA to brokers, and so far, 39 had come back saying they have their own arrangements.

Ageas would then send out an amended TOBA to those brokers, to take account of the fact they have their own arrangements.

Ageas had been in discussions with Biba over the arrangement and further talks were scheduled with the IIB.

Cliff said the key issue on referrals was over lawyers’ fees. They earned such large amounts of money from claimants' cases they could afford to pay for referrals, but hopefully, the Jackson Review would address the issue, he said.