How to choose an insurance broker?

Insurance brokers are a type of insurance intermediaries who can sell insurance policies to customers on behalf of insurance companies. Insurance brokers are the authorized agents of insurance companies in India who can sell insurance products to their customers. Insurance brokers are different in many terms when compared to other insurance intermediaries.

There are 3 types of insurance brokers in India:-

Direct insurance broker who can source Life and non-life insurance business in addition to the health insurance business in India. Almost 90% of the brokers registered in India come under this category. Reinsurance brokers who place the Reinsurance business with reinsurance companies. There are only a few reinsurance brokers in India. The third category is Composite brokers who can source insurance business as well as reinsurance business.

Here are the things to consider before choosing an insurance broker in India:-

Research:- The first and foremost thing to do before selecting an insurance broker is to check the background of the broker. Every detail about the insurance broker can be found on the internet and on their website. There would be many reviews of that particular broker mentioning the pros and cons of the broker.

The research should be done carefully and should be backed by the facts. Certain factors such as the retention ratio, and turnaround time to resolve queries of the broker should be found out as these play an important role going forward. For instance, Ethika insurance broking in Hyderabad has a 90% retention ratio which means that 9 out of 10 customers renew their insurance with Ethika insurance broking.

Vicinity:- The vicinity of the insurance broker also plays an important role in selecting the insurance broker for your insurance requirements. If the insurance broker is near your place of residence or office, then it would be easy to contact the broker for any of your requirements.

For instance, there might be a claim for which you need to visit the office of the broker which makes it difficult if their office is not in your vicinity. This issue can be addressed if the broker has an online presence, and all your queries are resolved online with minimal follow-up.

Value addition:- The other thing to consider before selecting an insurance broker is the value addition they are giving to their customers. For instance, Ethika insurance broking provides value Add-ons such as an employee engagement program, employee happiness program, employee assistance program, and red carpet claim assistance which helps to increase the interaction of employees.

These value Add-ons can differ from one Insurance broker to another. There are certain common value additions from brokers such as eye checkups, and health checkup camps which are arranged periodically.

Service:- The most important factor to consider is the service offered by the insurance broker. After-sales service is an important thing to be considered by the customers before finalizing the insurance broker. After-sales service includes claim assistance and endorsements that require changes such as additions or deletions to be made to the policy.