Introduction

Commercial insurance is a highly competitive market and its distribution is evolving; primarily as a result of economic conditions on UK business and persistently soft market conditions. A tightening of resources, a focus on operational efficiency and concentration on core relationships have impacted on the shape of distribution while traditional broker dominance is challenged in the SME space.

Features and benefits

• A discussion on current trends in the distribution landscape, including broker networks and e-trading, and their forecast future impact.
• The latest data on SME purchasing behavior; analyzing preferences regarding service, product, channel and platform broken down by business size.
• A view of the distribution strategies being pursued by the top 10 commercial insurers.
• The shape and composition of the distribution landscape broken down by business size segments and a review of the channels most appropriate for these.

Highlights

When asked how frequently contact with their broker was made, 55.2% of SMEs responded that this would occur only upon policy renewal. However, 44.8% of SMEs were in contact with their broker at least once per year beyond this; including 23.8% meeting with brokers more than twice per year.

For those brokers who did not belong to a network, the most cited main reason was "we are independent" with 27.6% of responses. 25.2% of brokers outside of networks did not know why they were not, while 18.9% did not regard them as beneficial.

The level of perceived threat from the range of alternative distribution channels varied depending on the size of the broker respondent. While large regional brokers were regarded as a key threat by all brokers, this was particularly pronounced among national brokers.

Your key questions answered

• Where do the current and forecasted commercial insurance distribution trends in the UK lie?
• What factors are influencing the purchasing behavior of SMEs?
• What distribution strategies are the top commercial insurers pursuing?
• In what ways are key developments variously affecting global, national, super-regional and provincial brokers?
• To what extent is e-trading defining the distribution landscape and how will it in the future?