It is my understanding from recent FSA compliance workshops that the onus of supplying policy summaries and advice statements to clients falls squarely with insurers.
However, certain insurers are passing the burden of supplying these summaries on to the broker by means of issuing either a one-page statement or summary and asking the broker to photocopy it and hand it out when required, or by simply putting the wording of the summaries on the internet site for the broker to print out.
To my knowledge, no insurer has offered any further commission for this extra work. As the requirement is not a broker requirement, I feel that any costs incurred by the broker in meeting an insurer's compliance procedures must be paid for.
I have made the point to various insurers but unfortunately to date have not had the courtesy of one single reply.
Perhaps if other brokers were to raise the point with their agency account managers it may spur insurers either to pay an extra commission to cover the extra cost imposed on the brokers (which I doubt) or meet their obligations by issuing separate advice statements or policy summaries for brokers to distribute accordingly.
Name & address withheld
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