Schemes brokers enjoy commission growth after strong year for large schemes

Schemes brokers have enjoyed a strong six-month trading period, with the 10 biggest schemes generating over £30m in commission across nearly £200m of written premium and all but three of the biggest lines reporting positive year-on-year growth.

This is according to the latest edition of the Insurance Times Schemes Index, released today (15 January 2025).

The index – compiled from data provided exclusively by broker schemes software provider SchemeServe – aggregates comprehensive premium, commission and renewals data from over 500 scheme types provided on the SchemeServe platform.

Three big schemes continue to dominate both the premium written and commission earned by brokers on the platform – SME package, commercial property owners and commercial combined.

Brokers wrote some £44.5m in premium across SME package schemes in the six-month period between June and November 2025, up 3.36% on the same period one year ago and 13.89% on the same period two years ago.

This translated to commission earnings of £8.2m – a 3.86% yearly growth and 14.73% up over two years.

Commercial property owners, meanwhile, saw written premium fall by 22.61% to £37m over the past year, despite commission earnings climbing by 3.68% to £4.6m. Comparing to the same period two years ago, overall premium written has fallen by 13.99%, while commission has grown by 29.92%.

This period’s third highest earning scheme, commercial combined, has seen a healthy year-on-year premium growth of 16.2% to £36.5m, while commission earnings have grown by 16.49% to £5.8m. Over a two-year period, impressive and sustained growth has seen written premium climb by 51.53% and commission earnings grow by 54.81%.

The top 10 largest schemes by written premium were completed by household, which earned £2.5m commission, residential property owners (£2.49m), combined liability (£1.98m), professional indemnity (£1.94m), pubs and clubs (£1.52m), specialist combined (£1.02m) and contractors all risks (£372,000).

Renewals and first premiums

The commission profile for different schemes varies, with the ratio of earnings sourced either from first policies or renewal policies reflecting both inherent product characteristics and possible customer flux levels.

SME package scheme brokers saw income sources split at £5.46m from renewals and £2.76m from first premiums, meaning 66% of profits were sourced from renewal premiums.

Commercial combined brokers saw a split of £4.07m from renewals and £1.73m from first premiums, while commercial property owners brought in £2.73m from renewals and £1.9m from first premiums, rates of 70% and 58% respectively.

Other notable splits among the big lines include pubs and clubs and marine cargo, which saw relatively high levels of profits derived from renewals at 80% and 83% respectively, and household and residential property owners, which conversely saw low levels of profits derived from renewals at 38% and 32% respectively.

Big lines growing

Strong performances were seen across the top 10 largest schemes by written premium, with seven out of 10 reporting positive year-on-year growth – including each of the largest three schemes – and no scheme reporting a yearly fall of more than 11%.

Household was the highest-growth scheme, with commission in the six months between June and November 2025 up a dramatic 88.4% on the same period last year. Likewise, residential property owners grew by 35.5% and combined liability by 26.5%.

Yearly growth was also seen in contractors all risks (20.7%), SME package (3.9%) and commercial property owners (3.7%).

Among the top 10 largest schemes, only professional indemnity (-2.2%), pubs and clubs (-10.1%) and specialist combined (-10.8%) registered a negative performance in commission levels.

Of the other major schemes, noteworthy performances were seen in personal accident cover – for which broker earnings grew by 96.2% between periods – and legal expenses, which registered a worrying 86.9% drop in commission and stands 34.8% down on the period two years ago.

However, scheme brokers will be pleased with the overall performance seen in the past six months and, with plenty of fast-growing and high-earning products, will be hoping to carry that success into the first half of 2026.