5 minute read
Why be a NIBA member?
WHY NIBA MATTERS TO ME
Members share why NIBA is important to them and the broking industry.
ADAM SQUIRE
NIBA Board Director and Head of Claims at Gallagher
ABOUT NIBA
OUR MISSION
NIBA is the one voice for insurance brokers in Australia, representing their interests and promoting high standards of professionalism and competence.
OUR OBJECTIVES
Representation
We represent the interests of members and their clients to governments, regulators, industry stakeholders, the media and the community in a manner that is respected and relevant. We have forged strong relationships at state and national level to ensure that your interests are represented.
Professionalism
We set and promote high standards of professional practice for insurance brokers for the benefit of their clients and the community through the development of professional standards, QPIB, CPD accreditation and the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice.
Community
We provide members with opportunities to meet, share, grow and prosper and build professional networks with the wider intermediated insurance community that will last throughout whole careers. GET IN TOUCH! Whatever your age, or level of experience, NIBA has brokers’ best interests at the core of everything we do. Find out what we can do to help benefit your business and your team at niba.com.au/membership
25 YEARS YOUNG!
BY SHAUN STANDFIELD
Managing Director, Insurance Advisernet
Insurance Advisernet (IA) now has over 250 Practices in Australia and New Zealand. This year will see IA placing over $1B in invoiced premiums.
The business was started by Ian Carr in 1996 in Australia and commenced in 2006 in New Zealand. As Ian regularly says, “IA has been an overnight success” – it just took 25 years of vision and hard work! What Ian has enjoyed immensely is watching people start their own business under our guidance, and in time they have built up a tangible asset along with all the benefits of being your own boss.
We believe the future of broking in
Australia is excellent. There is no doubt
AR models allow professional insurance brokers to run their own businesses with the backing of an AR model that provides sound back offices systems. We also believe the continued investment in data, systems, marketing and compliance infrastructure is crucial for the continued growth of both the AR’s business and for the longevity of the AR licensee holder.
You only have to look at the Australian
Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) sixmonthly statistics to 31 December 2020 to see what a great job Insurance Intermediaries do. During that period, there were 7,131 complaints lodged about General Insurance.
Of those only 180 matters, only 2.5%, were against Insurance Intermediaries. This speaks volumes for the role insurance intermediaries play in providing risk management advice and claims advocacy service to clients.
As a profession, we need to collectively improve our messaging about the role we play in providing personal risk management advice against direct insurance companies that offer only general advice. The AFCA statistics reinforce this. A recent decision by AFCA found that it’s “not the insurers’ job to advise on the sum insured” when the policyholder who lost their home in the bushfires last year found themselves underinsured to the tune of $600,000. Instead, AFCA found the onus was on the policyholder to ensure they had adequate insurance. This is an excellent example of the messaging the broking industry needs to communicate more to explain why having a broker in your corner will assist you to have the right policies and have a claims advocate working with you if the need arises.
Our model allows our ARs to concentrate on their clients with the support structures we provide them in terms of systems, compliance, professional development, finance, business management tools, insurance placement and claims advocacy services we provide. Our AR Practices mirror their clients in many ways and they have gone out on their own with our support and taken the risk to develop their own asset and business. In a way, this reflects many of our clients who also are small-medium businesses that have backed themselves to build a business for themselves.
Our core values are Trust, Advice, Choice and Value. Although we don’t lead with a price-driven model, we believe advice is the key to ensuring our clients are insured correctly by a trusted professional with relevant industry qualifications, access to broad insurance options and value for money.
The advent of technology has allowed brokers to spend more time with their clients. At IA, we see technology as an enabler and not a silver bullet. Technology cannot replace the advice a person can give; good advice only comes from understanding what your clients want, needs and risk tolerances, using data to ensure your clients are aware of the natural hazard risks they face coupled with the risks associated with the industry they are in.
Our AR model allows for succession to occur within our existing model, as many of our Practices are now merged businesses. As a Practice Principle plans for retirement, the collegiate nature of IA is that people form professional relationships across the group and, in time, discussions occur to allow seamless transitions of books of business across the network.
Advice trumps price every time; simply, when a claim occurs, the price you pay isn’t considered. What’s crucial is that you have the right policies in place to ensure your livelihood and assets are protected. Our role is more and more to provide risk management advice to our clients and part of this is to craft a bespoke insurance program. Often this program will be crafted using a myriad of insurance partners.
The next 25 years are going to as good as the last 25!
Insurance Advisernet would like to congratulate Dallas Booth on his stellar career in insurance and his role in representing our Industry as the Chief Executive of NIBA.
