The development of the internet as a sales and marketing portal used for financial services along with insurance continues to be dramatic over the last few years and has developed consistent with only the most ambitious expectations of the techno nerd and web disciple.
Price comparison websites and quotation services flourish and provide a fast and generally cheap answer to the financial and insurance requirements of people and businesses alike.
These products will be considered many as identical services, in competition with each other and providing broadly the same product whether it's on-line car insurance, commercial insurance or the multitude of other services that are available.
This is actually not true at all. There are 3 main types of provider providing these services on the web and the differences between the 3 are actually rather startling and they have a substantial bearing on the product and service that you're in fact purchasing.
The first class to consider is those of aggregators. There are a few quite notable examples of these kinds of business and they've seen a very dramatic increase in business during the last few years. These aggregators have spent a substantial amount of money in promoting their services and often allude to "cutting out the middleman" as being a suggestion that this makes their services less costly than those sold through more conventional agents.
In reality these websites charge the companies to appear on their websites and are paid a commission in respect of the product sales they create through their site. The wrapping up of the sales procedure is also the end of the connection with you as there is no continuing support from the portal; until obviously the next year when you'll be contacted once more with the hope that they may arrange this insurance with a different provider.
Such kind of activity would normally be regarded as "churning" by the insurance company and could be frowned upon. Insurers appear to have introduced a new perspective for aggregators, in no little part due to the quantity of business they attract.
There aggregator won't be involved throughout the policy year and will not provide you with assistance or independent advice on your insurance or in the occurrence of any claim.
The second category is the direct insurance web site, it is a site owned by an insurance company intended to advertise their policies only and you may be offered a contract or quotation from merely their product range and the competitiveness or otherwise will very much depend on the particular insurance companies inclination for the class of business.
You will be given ongoing support from the insurance company behind the web site and they'll assist you with an queries or losses that will occur under the policy.
It is true to say that this advice will not be independent, that isn't to say it will necessarily be inferior advice, it is simply not independent and naturally in any claims negotiation the insurer has a vested interest in settling the claim on the best possible terms to itself albeit fairly.
The third main route is via the professional insurance agent or insurance broker. An insurance broker provides access to a variety of products from insurance companies that they carry out business with, This panel of insurance companies is going to be developed by the broker to make sure that it's both competitive in premium and offers a product which is deemed to be up to standard by the agent for that type of business concerned.
The broker is going to be available to assist you with mid-term questions on insurance and will be able to offer independent information and guidance in the event of claim. Brokers are paid in various ways, there is usually a commission payable by the the insurance company to the broker and brokers may also charge supplementary fees and charges directly to the client, there's often a mix of the two.
Price comparison websites and quotation services flourish and provide a fast and generally cheap answer to the financial and insurance requirements of people and businesses alike.
These products will be considered many as identical services, in competition with each other and providing broadly the same product whether it's on-line car insurance, commercial insurance or the multitude of other services that are available.
This is actually not true at all. There are 3 main types of provider providing these services on the web and the differences between the 3 are actually rather startling and they have a substantial bearing on the product and service that you're in fact purchasing.
The first class to consider is those of aggregators. There are a few quite notable examples of these kinds of business and they've seen a very dramatic increase in business during the last few years. These aggregators have spent a substantial amount of money in promoting their services and often allude to "cutting out the middleman" as being a suggestion that this makes their services less costly than those sold through more conventional agents.
In reality these websites charge the companies to appear on their websites and are paid a commission in respect of the product sales they create through their site. The wrapping up of the sales procedure is also the end of the connection with you as there is no continuing support from the portal; until obviously the next year when you'll be contacted once more with the hope that they may arrange this insurance with a different provider.
Such kind of activity would normally be regarded as "churning" by the insurance company and could be frowned upon. Insurers appear to have introduced a new perspective for aggregators, in no little part due to the quantity of business they attract.
There aggregator won't be involved throughout the policy year and will not provide you with assistance or independent advice on your insurance or in the occurrence of any claim.
The second category is the direct insurance web site, it is a site owned by an insurance company intended to advertise their policies only and you may be offered a contract or quotation from merely their product range and the competitiveness or otherwise will very much depend on the particular insurance companies inclination for the class of business.
You will be given ongoing support from the insurance company behind the web site and they'll assist you with an queries or losses that will occur under the policy.
It is true to say that this advice will not be independent, that isn't to say it will necessarily be inferior advice, it is simply not independent and naturally in any claims negotiation the insurer has a vested interest in settling the claim on the best possible terms to itself albeit fairly.
The third main route is via the professional insurance agent or insurance broker. An insurance broker provides access to a variety of products from insurance companies that they carry out business with, This panel of insurance companies is going to be developed by the broker to make sure that it's both competitive in premium and offers a product which is deemed to be up to standard by the agent for that type of business concerned.
The broker is going to be available to assist you with mid-term questions on insurance and will be able to offer independent information and guidance in the event of claim. Brokers are paid in various ways, there is usually a commission payable by the the insurance company to the broker and brokers may also charge supplementary fees and charges directly to the client, there's often a mix of the two.
About the Author:
Blackfriars Group is a specialist commercial insurance broker providing instant on-line quotes for business insurance services for a wide variety of businesses and offering first class services in new start business insurance.
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