Kevin Paterson is sales and marketing director at Assurant Intermediary
As we enter 2013 all minds turn towards New Year resolutions and new beginnings. The old saying goes that if you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you always got, so if we want to strive for better we need to come at things from a different angle and consider a new approach.
The rental market, for example, continues to do well in an otherwise bleak property market, but are brokers and intermediaries making enough of this bright horizon?
According to the latest Mintel home insurance UK report (October 2012) general insurance continues to be more heavily skewed towards home owners for both building and contents - only about two fifths of people living in rented accommodation own a home contents policy. Accessing and encouraging renters to take up contents insurance continues to be a challenge for the market, and yet the rising number of renters represents a golden opportunity for those brokers who can find a route to the market. Understanding how to tap into this market is the key.
Mortgage brokers and advisers are well aware of the need to diversify, cross-sell, up-sell and cut costs to survive in today’s market and we know that brokers continue to see GI products as playing an important part in maintaining their incomes.
Good GI providers are always looking at ways to improve their product range, commissions and access to new and better insurers, but where’s the real innovation? How are GI providers leveraging the opportunities that exist to help brokers to open the door to new potential clients?
What is sorely needed is some originality and just a pinch of lateral thinking. At Assurant Intermediary we have been working on a new and exciting project that will introduce new products as well as cross-sell opportunities into an entirely new but parallel market for mortgage brokers. We expect to launch in the New Year and we can’t wait to blow the dust off the GI market. New Year, new beginnings!
