Brokers need all the support they can get, but they are not getting it from insurers. Our own research into brokers' views of insurers is unequivocal: insurers fail them.
The damning comments from brokers on the lack of support provided by insurers is deeply worrying. Insurers should be giving brokers the help they need.
But when it comes to a lack of support for brokers, they suffer from all angles. It will come as no surprise to find that as far as regulation is concerned, brokers feel they do not get enough support from the FSA (page 22).
The FSA's justification for this is that they are a regulator not an advisory company. But this is a cop out. It has a responsibility to help and assist brokers in dealing with the numerous diktats it forces on brokers.
How brokers are supported by their own representative associations is highlighted by the difference in character and approach of the two men representing Biba and the IIB. (page 17).
Biba's Eric Galbraith is a more measured man with the IIB's Andrew Paddick being more vociferous and passionate. What brokers possibly need however is one singular strong voice.
And for the broking industry to have support for the future, it needs the necessary talent.
The CII realises that attracting the right type of recruit into the industry is crucial. Its own talent initiative is a serious attempt to address the issue and bring top talent into the industry.
After all, as is noted here (page 12), the insurance industry does have a worse image problem than David Gest.
But as Gest has reinvented himself in a reality TV show, so can the insurance industry by exploiting the CII's initiative to the full.
