As Australia feels the bite of inflation and cost-of-living increases, Bell Partners Insurance’s (Bell Partners) Matthew Bates shared with Insurance Business Australia (IB) how the brokerage takes on these challenges with clients and insurers.
In a recent IBTV episode, which you can watch here for free, Bates identified the current industry challenges facing Bell Partners and other brokerages, including increased cost of claims that led to skyrocketing insurance premiums, and ways to solve them.
“The increased cost of claims has made insurance premiums [rise] for some time now, probably over 24 months,” he said, adding that clients have become more sensitive to premium increases and started questioning their insurance premiums and sections.
Bates said Bell Partners’ team addresses this problem by explaining to clients about the rising costs and inflation and focusing on how the balance between coverage and price has been for them.
“It’s also very important to ensure that clients understand that we’re not on autopilot and we are doing what we can as a brokerage to ensure that they do find that right balance of price and coverage so we can continue to add real value to their programs,” he continued.
Highlighting the importance of communication, Bates added that Bell Partners ensures it thoroughly explains to clients exactly for what they are covered.
“I think in good times, people just tend to take [communication] for granted in some way, shape, or form. Whereas now, with a bit of forensic lens on [the] rising costs across their businesses [and] their insurance programs, there’s a brokerage to defend clients against the unknown. We want to ensure that we’re putting our clients first and putting ourselves in their shoes and trying to understand by providing them that information around coverage and for the price that they’re paying for,” Bates told IB. “I think when we do that, it transforms the relationship from being a transactional one to that advisor process and being a genuine trusted advisor, which is what we want for all our clients.”
Find out other challenges facing brokerages and how Bell Partners faces them by watching the IBTV episode here.
