Trust is vital for buying decisions, Airmic survey reveals

Published on Wed, 30/09/2015 - 23:00

Brokers lagging insurers, but overall trust in industry is high.

The level of trust policyholders have in a potential insurer or broker overwhelmingly underpins their buying decisions, a survey of Airmic members has revealed. According to the results of the study, 96% said that trust in an insurer plays a key role in selection, and 93% felt the same about brokers.

The survey results revealed a generally positive picture of trust levels across the industry. Asked about a range of issues, from claims paying philosophy to risk management advice, an average of 71% agreed or strongly agreed that they trusted their insurer, while only 7% on average disagreed or strongly disagreed.

However, the level of trust in brokers, while also relatively high, lagged insurers at an average trust level of 68%. Meanwhile, 12% on average disagreed or strongly disagreed that they could trust their broker on certain issues.

The area of greatest concern for Airmic members is the transparency of the broker business model. Almost a fifth of respondents said they couldn’t trust their broker on this issue. Similarly, 15% said they don’t trust their broker in its handling of conflicts of interest. These findings are supported by the 2015 pre-conference member survey conducted in May in which over 40% of respondents listed broker conflict of interest as a key concern.

John Hurrell, chief executive of Airmic, commented: “Trust is a hard-to-define concept which can only be built up over a long period of time, so I am delighted that overall levels of trust across the industry are strong.

“The survey does, however, reveal areas for improvement which insurers and brokers need to think about – especially given how important trust is to our members as demonstrated very clearly by these results.”

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