Norwich Union's service levels are the worst, Zurich's are the best, and almost all brokers expect to join the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC), an Insurance Times survey shows.
The straw poll, carried out during broker HSBC's Spectrum Roadshows, received responses from nearly 50 brokers and asked questions on a broad range of topics, including service, training standards and regulation.
NU totted up a total of 20 votes from brokers for the title of "worst insurer" in terms of service. The next worst was deemed to be Axa Insurance, which got five votes. Next in line behind Axa was Lloyd's group KGM.
By contrast, the best insurer in terms of service, was Zurich, which received twelve votes. But a number of other insurers, including Highway, NIG and – bizarrely – Axa were the most popular with brokers.
On the supposedly thorny issue of regulation, our survey was bad news for the IIB's new version of the Insurance Brokers Registration Council (IBRC) and great news for the GISC.
Just three brokers said they would not join the GISC, each stating that they were happy with their current regulator, the IBRC.
Of the rest of the respondents who answered the regulation question, 30 said they would sign up to the fledgling regulator, although their reasons varied.
"It's the way ahead," said one broker. Another said: "Insurers are stating that they will not deal with brokers unless they are members." The consensus of opinion was that membership of GISC would become compulsory and that there were no viable alternatives.
But the most finely balanced issue was that of the broker status being offered by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
The number of brokers saying they would go for the title Chartered Insurance Broker and the number that would not bother was split down the middle at 18 votes each.
Of those who said they would not go for the new title, age seemed to be the biggest hurdles.
Two brokers said they were "too old" to be bothered to acquire the new title. Others said they had never heard of the title Chartered Insurance Broker.
