The service primarily covers buildings and contents insurance but other insurances such as travel and marine can be added to a policy.
The service will enable financial advisers and insurance brokers to refer high net worth cases to Dovetail Insurance Services, a specialist that only operates in this area. Dovetail will provide expert advice, select an appropriate policy from a wide panel of providers and arrange full policy administration. The introducing intermediary will receive 10% of initial premium and 5% of renewal, with a guarantee from Dovetail Insurance Services that no other products will be cross-sold to their client. The average annual premium for high net worth buildings and contents insurance is £1,500.
IFAs and mortgage brokers will be able to use this specialist service to ensure they are able to meet the needs of more affluent clients when existing quote systems are unable to provide a quote due to the high sum insured. This enables them to grow their relationship with these clients and ensure their insurance business is not lost to a competitor.
Specialist general insurance brokers will benefit from having access to a wider panel of insurers when regulation of general insurance begins on 15th January 2005. If they currently only offer products from one insurer they will have to disclose this under the new rules which could prompt clients to look for a broker with wider market coverage. This service will enable them to give both new and existing clients access to a wider panel of insurers, protecting client relationships and increasing income.
The service is available to subscribing users of the main Exweb portal for IFAs and Exweb Broker, The Exchange’s non-regulated service, for mortgage and general insurance brokers.
David Child, managing director at The Exchange, comments:
“This launch forms part of our strategy to ensure Exweb is a one-stop-shop financial services portal for all types of intermediary. IFAs, mortgage intermediaries and general insurance brokers alike now have access to leading research, quotation and transaction services for the majority of financial products in one place.”
Geoff Moss, managing director at Dovetail Insurance, comments:
“This service can enable all types of adviser or broker to take advantage of the lucrative high net worth household insurance market. Premiums for this type of business are high, which offers advisers a significant revenue stream simply by making referrals. Most importantly it ensures they can meet another of their client’s needs and offer them a high quality insurance policy.”
