Helping hands: from left, Steadfast Underwriting Agencies Chief Operations Officer Katrin Stoecker, Heavy Motor Insurance Australia CEO Michael Zaknic, UAA CEO Micheal Murphy, and Steadfast CEO and MD Robert Kelly
Brokers give back A new report shows how brokers value their communities and go above and beyond when it comes to philanthropy By Bernice Han
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rokers do more than just attend to the insurance needs of clients. They are extremely active in community work, raising not just funds for charities but also volunteering their time to help out the less fortunate in society. A study commissioned by the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) finds the average brokerage gives away more than $25,000 annually to charitable and other social causes. The Deloitte Access Economics report on broker value says each brokerage also spends an average of $20,000 sponsoring events or fundraisers in the local communities where they are present. Monetary donations aside, many also help out at community or charity events. Brokerages clocked in an average of more than 400 staff hours supporting the work of charities and more than 150 additional hours for other causes, according to the report, which is based on responses from NIBA’s membership base.
And brokers have not wavered in their desire to give back to society despite months of business upheavals caused by the pandemic. Even as they worked longer than usual hours to guide clients out of the coronavirus recession, they have not forgotten about the many not-for-profits out there that are struggling just as much financially in the current economic climate. “In my life, things are really simple,” Kim Gilbert, the founder of Zenith Insurance Services, a brokerage based in Perth, told Insurance News. “There is the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do and I believe, like a lot in the broking profession, that it is our responsibility to give back to the community that has been good to us over many years.” In recent months he has been up before 5am, training intensively four or five times a week to build up his fitness for next year’s Red Sky Ride, an annual cycling event he co-founded in 2008 to raise funds for Solaris Cancer Care.
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December 2020/January 2021
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