Broker Satisfaction Survey: Aviva triumphs in Financial Lines

Aviva has gained first place in the Insurance Age Financial Lines Broker Survey, securing a narrow lead over CFC Underwriting and Markel. This was a tightly fought contest with less than three percentage points between the top three insurers.

The results indicate that the leading insurers are providing both quality coverage and high standards of service within this complex commercial class, which typically covers lines such as professional indemnity, directors’ and officers’, crime and may also extend to areas such as employment practices and pensions trustees’ liability.

Mark Fellows, Aviva’s head of financial lines, said: “This recognition from our trading partners is a reward for the financial lines team's dedication and hard work to provide a great product and service for our brokers and clients. We are focused on delivering the best service possible, particularly in these difficult times, which is not just the main goal for financial lines but runs through the entire Aviva ethos.”

According to Kate Lyes, head of specialty Lines at CFC Underwriting: “Those who are managing businesses are under more scrutiny than ever before and their companies face increasing regulation around corporate behaviour and reporting. We're committed to helping them manage their risk so they can focus on running their businesses.

“We're delighted that our approach of providing comprehensive cover at a competitive price, with quick straight-forward service is delivering for UK brokers and their clients. We're hugely grateful for their feedback and will be aiming to top the rankings in 2023.”

Nic Brown, divisional director – broker, at Markel UK, said: “We’ve made considerable investment in our eTrade capability, with many brokers trading with us via Acturis. In the last year, we have seen our Acturis new business increase by 300% and have made our platform much more widely available to every PI combined Acturis user.

“Whilst we have seen other markets in the UK adopt a more commoditised approach, these markets have become incredibly lean with very little benefit to the customer. It’s up to reputable players in the market, like Markel UK, to explore what can be done to change the customer experience. We believe that this starts with giving customers the right level of service, claims support, comprehensiveness of wording and sustainability – this forms the core of our proposition and our Expect More promise.”

He added: “With market conditions continually changing, we use our experience to deliver innovative insurance solutions and a less volatile approach to acceptance and pricing.”

A ding-dong battle

Analysis of the survey reveals that there is little to choose between the top three and CFC Underwriting certainly gave Aviva a run for their money. So, in the ‘quality of underwriting, communication and access to decision-makers’ category, CFC pipped Aviva, coming first with 77.17% over 75%.

CFC also won out in the ‘cover – scope and quality’ category, achieving 80.43%, but in this area, it was Markel that scored a close second with 79%.

However, for ‘renewals – efficiency and fairness’, Aviva trumped second place Markel, scoring 75% over 71%. And by just a nose over CFC Underwriting, which scored 78.26%, Aviva won the top slot for ‘new business – efficiency in providing quotes, scoring 79.17% and again, in ‘policy documentation – useability and clarity’ Aviva beat CFC, scoring 79.17% over 72.83%.

The survey - what brokers were questioned on

The exclusive research questioned brokers on their insurer preferences based on five key areas, with the industry average scores of all companies combined shown:

• New business – efficiency in providing quotes (69.50%)
• Quality of underwriting, communication and access to decision makers (69.90%)
• Policy documentation – useability and clarity (75.80%)
• Cover – scope and quality (75.20%)
• Renewals – efficiency and fairness (70.00%)

The average score was 72.08%

Preferred providers – what brokers said

Given the close scoring of the leading companies, brokers had a number of favourite financial lines insurers. Aviva was singled out by a number of brokers for offering “the best range of products” and “the best service”, while for CFC Underwriting, brokers praised “experienced and helpful underwriters who know their markets” and said “they have a wide appetite and are quick at coming back to us”. Meanwhile, it was noted Markel supplied “good service and accessible underwriters.”

However, outside of the top three, brokers also showed support for other insurers, including Beazley, which achieved fourth place, referring to its “online option and being able to package different kinds of cover together” and its “speed of response and being able to actually speak to an underwriter.”

AIG was said to provide “solid underwriting and a sustainable pricing model” and Axa was described as being “less knee-jerk in the hardening market” and “offering a quick response and knowledgeable underwriters.”

Chubb, which was almost level-pegging with Axa in the survey, was said to have “hands down the most savvy underwriters in the regions” and was praised for its “scope of cover”.

Further, Hiscox was said to be “very efficient at dealing with new submissions and enquiries” and “when they quote, they are often able to undercut other insurers in the market”.

Although Hiscox may appear to be in last place – or 8^th – in total, brokers named 17 insurers as those they favoured and so to be ranked within the top eight remains a creditable performance.

Coming up on the rails

Other insurers that fell just outside the top eight, but were supported by brokers, included Travelers for its “efficient underwriting processes, quick decision making and clear wordings” and Direct Insurance for being “very quick to deal with for complex enquiries and have a wealth of experience”.

Tokio Marine HCC was said to be new to e-traded products and “to offer superb cover and premium on white-collar trades” while another broker said they used CNA “due to their quick turnaround on new business and quotes”.

What can be learned from the winners?

Brokers commenting on the financial lines sector said there were a number of areas that insurers should focus on. Notably, one broker pointed out that too many in this sector concentrated on supporting “very large brokers” over those in the regions. Given that D&O, for example, is now largely mainstream, this could be an insurer shortcoming.

Brokers also called for insurers to be better at communicating their risk appetite to avoid time being wasted and others complained at being kept waiting – in some cases for a month or more – to turn around new business quotes and renewals.

The issue of being unable to reach underwriters is certainly not solely a financial lines problem, but brokers said they were frustrated if they could not reach an empowered professional promptly.

This would seem to be a key area to address, whether in terms of recruiting more specialist underwriters and if there are hybrid working models in place, to ensure that brokers receive a timely response no matter where the workplace is. It was also stated that in some cases, insurers were also failing to respond to email requests.

In these uncertain times, board level exposures are an area that many brokers are providing advice on and as this survey demonstrates, those insurers which step up to the mark to provide the right products and service, will benefit from recognition.