What is the biggest friction point in insurer-broker relationships today?

Earlier this year Insurance Business was here at the BIVA Conference 2026 to ask the industry's biggest questions to insurers, brokers, MGAs, associations and more. In this edition we ask what is the biggest friction point in insurer-broker relations? I think ultimately and most importantly you know I should stress the need for a really strong strategic relationship between brokers and insurers I think that's vital. As an ex-broker I also recognize that the need for brokers to drive revenue to create the power to grow but at the same time insurers to protect their top and their bottom line. I think in the current market I think it's especially pivotal you know brokers are desperate to keep their customers and at the same time insurers are you know really keen to retain their backbook as well. So we've done a lot about efficiently trading with each other but I think the biggest friction point is where that efficiency breaks down and the broker needs to get to someone who can answer the question of something that doesn't fit the box. Well I think this year the soft market and the extent of the soft market is probably the biggest friction point. There's an awful lot of extra work that brokers and insurers are having to put in it's a time of opportunity and a time of threat and when the stress levels are high goodness me you know you've got to make sure that you've got the right answer. It's always going to be around access to the market access to all the products and getting the price that's right. I think the biggest friction point between brokers and insurers is always going to be about the communication. I think insurers always want to work risk adverse they always want to know that they're going to be guaranteed to get that quote that conversion and of course it doesn't work like that. Brokers I think at times can have expectations of the insurers that are unrealistic in that they want a quote they should be able to get a quote and it should be fine and easy to do. Speed is the biggest issue. I think insurers to some part kind of don't use their underwriting skills in the way that perhaps they want to. It's so system generated that if a broker can't get a quote instantly from an insurer there's no conversations taking place there's no kind of have a chat about what this risk looks like they just expect it to be done through the system. An insurer then has a broker on the phone and he's trying to explain why they won't do it or how they can't do it but a broker just needs that risk to be placed it's so aggressive the market out there at the moment. In a soft market it's really hard you know as a broker you're working three four times harder to retain a piece of business or to win a piece of business but for 50% of the income which is where we are in the current climate for an insurer they need to be really careful. Yes they've got a lot more opportunity to write in a soft market they maybe will write things outside of appetite that they haven't before but they've still got to make sure that the underwriting criteria is met. They don't often understand the reasons that a broker is trying to push to get a quote done. I work with a lot of independent brokers many startups for them to convert a piece of business that's their mortgage payment that income is everything to them. For an insurer it's just whether or not it fits that criteria or not. Will they go above and beyond to make sure that that customer the end customer is getting to cover the need for the price they want or are they really concerned about making sure that they write within their branding authority or making sure that you know if that's a broker that hasn't supported them in the past are they going to go all out to win that business or do they know that if they pick up a quote from a bigger more affluent broker and somebody who is really supporting them has got a bigger account do they know that that's going to convert maybe there's a deal in the background. So I think there's a lot of angst between the broker and the insurer and I think there's a lot disconnect. I think insurers need to get to know the brokers a lot better. I think BDMs do a good job of that to some extent but a broker should be able to ring up an insurer to say can I just chat to you about a risk. We can't lose that skill and it's something that we really need to do a lot more of. For me the single biggest friction point is probably insurers not necessarily putting themselves in the shoes of the client and realizing what the broker is dealing with in in dealing directly with the client. So I really want to see more cohesion across that whole relationship piece. I think for me we don't actually have friction with our insurers to be fair. I think that's something that we really pride ourselves on. We work really really hard to nurture and protect those relationships and I think that's about having a joint understanding of what the vision is for both businesses and what we're trying to deliver for the customer ultimately. I think if there is anything where that friction may arise I'd say it's probably around the moment of truth which is around claims really. We tend to be stuck in the middle on those kind of situations where you're acting on behalf of the client but you're equally working in partnership with the insurer. At that point in time we're talking about a client's their livelihood if you like. So they want to be back up and running as quickly as possible and we need to manage their expectations and work with insurers who've obviously got to go through their investigation and making sure that the claim aligns with the policy terms, exclusions, warranties etc. So it's making sure that we manage expectations on both sides of the fence really at that point. So I think the very fact that we've got really strong relationships helps us in those situations. So as I say I don't really see any issue as far as Brown and concerned in that place because we do work hard with our insurers on our relationships and partnerships. I guess the biggest issue we have at the moment is around wordings and model wordings and whether they're really designed to produce policies that will pay valid claims to clients. Our worry is that the tendency in the insurance community is to see new risks and try to exclude it which is not really London's role. London's there to see new risks and try and find ways of covering it and that's been at the core of the innovation of the market over centuries basically. So we need to address the way those wordings are produced and make sure that there's effective and appropriate broker input into the process whilst recognising that they are owned by the insurers and so they're fully free to ignore any advice we give them but would be nice if we got the chance to them the advice before they were published. As head of regulatory affairs at Lloyds Market Association I have to go with regulation and fair value assessments. That's why we're working with Bieber at the moment on ways that we can come together as a market and remove some of that friction for brokers.