Having read your article (Features, 22 June) based on information from Defaqto I must contradict its findings. Certainly the number of brokers has reduced considerably. However, those of us remaining are sharing a smaller cake.
What Defaqto does not take into account is that there will always be a number of people who prefer to have a face-to-face situation rather than press buttons, often with no end result. We have lost clients since the advent of direct selling but we have seen many of these come back having experienced life on the direct side.
It must be realised, and people are certainly finding out, that with a claim against a direct writer the insured is on his or her own - no broker to help out and put pressure on the insurer.
We and our fellow brokers provide a service the direct insurers cannot hope to compete with and at a competitive price.
In our case it has been the survival of the fittest and from our company's standpoint we are still growing nicely with three offices across mid-Essex and a very satisfied client base.
We have been reading of the demise of IFAs and brokers for over 20 years. We will still be reading about it in 20 years' time.
Roy Pipe
Managing director
Covertriumph Ltd
t/a R Pipe Insurance Consultant
