Chris Blackham takes a look at the main issues confronting those starting a new insurance brokerage

It has taken 16 years to sort out the mess left behind by the failed insurance company Independent.

Here former employee Paul Handleigh and youTalk-insurance founder looks back over the demise of the company that started with such grand plans, and its unbelievably long liquidation process

Andy Talbot, Head of Sales at ARAG Legal Services shares his thoughts on attending a decade of BIBA conferences...

While BIBA 2017 was the association’s 39th conference, it’s now ten years since ARAG first exhibited. Many of us were already BIBA veterans, of course, but the eleven BIBAs that have taken place over the decade since I drove up to ExCel with ARAG UK’s first exhibition stand in 2007, have seen some major changes.

With the 2017 BIBA Conference just a week away, I am very much looking forward to heading to Manchester where there will be plenty of opportunities to connect with many of our broker partners. I’ll also be looking forward to exploring this year’s conference theme ‘Connections’, a topic which really could not be more relevant to the insurance sector right now.  

Change is coming, and insurers need to be ready for it if they do not want further pressure on bottom lines

When the Enterprise Act 2016 was passed into law on 4th May 2016 a flurry of legal comment flooded the market as firms sought to be the first to lead the debate. However, as the new regime was not due to come into force for another year, the market’s attention turned quickly to the impending introduction of the Insurance Act 2015.

A couple of years ago an Ernst & Young survey in the UK revealed that just 7% of consumers have "complete trust" in their insurer. It was reported that UK insurance customers were found to hold more trust in the banking sector, despite the severe reputational damage it has suffered over the last seven years, than in their insurance provider.

With over 3,500 insurance brokers in the UK, many of these companies rely on the use of search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) to drive sales through Google, Bing and other search engines.

As insurance markets transform and providers compete with other financial services organizations for business, evolving their operational strategies will no longer be optional – it will be critical.  A big piece of this is, of course, technology. Insurance companies need IT solutions that foster the enablement of new strategies and help them drive operational excellence, product innovation and customer service.

Have you ever been frustrated when your Coach or Mentor doesn't seem to understand what it's like to work in your world?

It was fascinating to read the results of Xchanging plc’s survey at the end of last year, which revealed that only one-third of insurers in the London Market believe their firm could withstand a major cyber-attack, and almost half felt they were underprepared, according to a survey conducted by the company.