What is an insurance broker?
An insurance broker is a consultant who manages the procurement and fulfilment of insurance, right the way from scoping out project needs, to handling the claims process.
What’s the difference between an insurance agent and broker?
Insurance agents work on behalf of an insurance company to find new clients.
Brokers work for their client, helping find them the right insurance company to meet their specific needs.
An agent can only offer you the best options from the insurers that they are tied to.
Brokers know that different insurers have different strengths and seek out the most suitable solutions from a wider pool.
As a broker, we can get you competitive insurance deals, that match your needs, not the needs of a seller.
Once you have a broker you trust working for you, you don’t have to worry about shopping around year after year…it’s your broker’s job to search out the right deal for you.
Risk intelligence: the key skill of brokers
Something that often happens when we talk to a new client – there often seems to be a few risks that are costing too much or present a major threat.
Sitting down for an informal chat with a Howden broker can help with your business risk planning.
A broker is a resource: we spend time striving to reduce the cost of risk for our clients which has enabled us to become experts in risk mitigation projects.
An experienced insurance broker team brings an enhanced level of risk intelligence (RQ) to any organisation they help.
7 ways a broker can help you to meet your objectives:
1. Defending your claims record
People can and will make claims on your insurance against you, which will affect later premiums. As an insurance broker, we defend your interests with knowledge, experience, charm and backbone.
2. Managing your reputation
Got claims on your track record? We can work with you to represent your case to insurers in the best possible light.
3. Access beyond the mainstream
Insurance you see online is the tip of the iceberg - we access a broad range of global and local insurers, not just the big names you see on TV.
4. Cutting costs through cutting risks
Helping you learn from others’ mistakes with up-to-the-minute thinking on risk management trends.
5. Claims advocacy
You want your claim paid fast. We can get results quicker than you thought possible (we often take on claims advocacy cases for clients where their incumbent broker is failing to get the claim paid).
6. Helping good decision making
Explain, advise, simplify; we you show the difference between your best options, in language you understand.
7. Making doing business safer
From balance sheet protection planning to employee wellbeing programs and cybersecurity, our advice protects your long term prosperity.
Why we don’t dive in to the hard sell
Our service proposition is about more than “insurance products.”
Insurance is a service – assistance in restoring your business to prosperity when you’re in trouble. And like all services, some providers are better than others.
Because of the long list of troubles you can run into, buying the right insurance can get complicated. As such, it’s got much in common with the procurement of a major IT project. But a lot of companies treat insurance like re-ordering printer paper. When it’s running low, they buy some more – the cheapest they can find.
A word on claims
As a specialist Broker, we can leverage our network and experience to get the claim paid as quickly as possible. Most of our clients see claims as a learning opportunity. Using a broker in this way can be hugely beneficial, helping you take control of your risk scenario.
The value of a broker is twofold:
1. Embed systems and processes to maximise defensibility of claims
The broker proves their worth when a major claim occurs, or even worse, when it’s contested. Of course, when you have a Howden policy you have broad, responsive policy wordings that have been skilfully designed to avoid tricky pitfalls.
2. Make sure claims are a learning tool to feed into future planning
It’s not always easy to see why claims are happening, but if you make a point of learning from them, you can roll out risk mitigating initiatives that make a big difference to your future claims experience.
We cut through chaos to empower you with a clearer view.
Make the client happy and everything else will follow