13 Questions To Help Your Organization Select An Insurance Broker
The number of insurance companies licensed in Canada is quite small, but the number of licensed brokers often feels infinite. It’s important to also note that most brokers have access to the exact same insurers, products and pricing so it’s important to distinguish the selection of a broker/brokerage from the selection of the best insurer for your organization. When evaluating insurance brokers, it is important to find a broker that can best serve the needs of your business – both today and in the future. You will likely start out by requesting a written proposal from a number of firms and, through evaluations and interviews, streamline your “candidate” pool.
Once you’ve selected three or four firms with the best potential, an in-person interview will help you narrow the field even further. Be sure to include your financial officer, risk manager and business leader(s) in the interviews so that multiple individuals will have an opportunity to assess the finalists.
Interviewing Questions To Help Select An Insurance Broker
When you sit down with each of the candidate firms, the following questions can help you assess whether or not the broker will be a good fit for your business needs.
- Tell us more about the experience of the people who you propose will be working on our account.
- Please describe your firm’s knowledge of the insurance market available for our industry. How many accounts do you current serve? How many accounts have you lost in our industry?
- What do you think about our current property and casualty program? Any immediate suggestions for improvement?
- Tell us about your marketing process. Will we have an opportunity to meet with underwriters?
- How do you evaluate insurers? In the event that the market changes, what is your process for keeping us informed?
- What kind of loss prevention services do you offer? What is the cost of these services? How will your firm work with us on loss prevention?
- Please describe how your firm will work with our staff through claims process.
- What is the frequency and extent of your firm’s claims reports?
- Will your firm provide an annual activity report? If required, can your firm provide statistical reports or actuarial services on funding levels?
- What additional specialized services can your firm provide?
- How does your firm want to be compensated? How will your firm determine compensation for servicing our account?
- Based on your current knowledge of our company’s needs and the current insurance market, what do you estimate will be your compensation?
- Do you have any concerns about sharing the commission statements from insurers?
The typical broker interview will likely take 60 to 90 minutes so scheduling a two-hour window will ensure time to rate each candidate firm immediately as well as some stretch time. The questions you ask an insurance broker during qualification, in your request for proposal and during the in-person interview can help you determine an ideal fit for your organization.
The broker that you select will become your working partner for several years. Brokers should be chosen based on knowledge, ability, personality, performance and ultimate cost.
Our 18 points of differentiation are why our brokerage stands apart in the Canadian marketplace. Uniquely within the industry, we create, negotiate and deliver the best business insurance and risk management strategies/solutions to organizations like yours.
| ALIGNED Across Canada 100% Canadian owned, ALIGNED is a premiere insurance brokerage that serves more than 1,400 clients across the country. ALIGNED’s offices in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver are supported by a national operations centre in Cambridge, Ontario. Uniquely within the industry, ALIGNED creates, negotiates and delivers the best business insurance and risk management strategies/solutions to organizations like yours. |
