Insurance brokers have highlighted regulatory compliance as their number one concern this year, in a poll carried out by RebuildCostASSESSMENT.com.
The UK's leading buildings insurance valuation provider spoke to more than 100 brokers at last week’s Bravo National Conference in Birmingham, asking them which was the big issue keeping them awake at night in 2024.
More than one in 10 (13%) said attracting talent and meeting recruitment needs was a problem for brokers, while 16% told us finding a market for risks could be challenging. However, their ‘biggest concern’ was keeping up with regulatory demands, cited by more than one in 5 (21%).
‘Regulation overload’
Donna Walker, Chief Risk Officer at CADIS, told us: “We’ve literally been living in regulation overload for the past 5 years. There are so many things that have to be done and the cost that creates for each individual broker is phenomenal. It’s a real challenge to keep up to speed with it all.”
Donna went on to highlight three areas of regulation in particular; the Consumer Duty; Fair Value and Pricing and Multi-Occupancy Buildings.
Matthew Bagnall, Commercial Business Manager at AMA Insurance said recruiting younger people was a big challenge for the insurance industry: “The younger generation don’t know enough about insurance and don’t really have much interest in it. At the moment, we’re trying to promote it. There’s good money in insurance and you can go far in a career, but it’s tough attracting young people to be honest.”
‘Too many hoops’
Other issues highlighted by brokers were 'achieving growth' (10%), 'rate increases' (8%), 'underinsurance' (8%) and 'avoiding errors and omissions' (6%).
Ewan Sandison, RebuildCostASSESSMENT.com Account Manager, commented: “As always, it was fascinating engaging with brokers to understand their needs and some of the challenges they face right now. It certainly was interesting to hear brokers mention such a wide range of issues.
“However, the overall message was clear. Brokers are experiencing many pressures around the amount of time available to them and the talent needed to service clients well. Most told us they very much want to achieve the best outcomes for their clients, but they feel there are often too many hoops to jump through to achieve this.”
We’re looking forward to chatting with more brokers at BIBA in May and then at the Cobra Network Annual Conference and Expo in June. Hopefully, we'll see some of you there.