Three stages of consultation. Fifty-one written submissions. More than 300 pieces of feedback on the draft Code. One final Code.
That is what happens when a profession asks how it can do better. You get a lot of feedback and a lot of perspectives. And even with the best intentions, you cannot accept all of it. But the 2027 Code is better for every piece of the feedback.
In the coming week, NIBA is launching the 2027 Code at our Convention. It is a new Code that had a lot of questions to answer: how to stay future-ready as broking changes, how to speak to clients in words they understand, and how to make good practice simpler for every broker to follow. Brokers are the voice of the client, so we tested every answer against the people brokers serve.
This is the fourth and final piece in this series. The first three set out the profession's promise to clients, the case for affordability and accessibility, and the evidence the Code was built on. This one sets out the result, and I want to explain how we got there and what it means for clients.
The 2027 Code was built in three stages: an independent review, followed by two rounds of our own consultation. The review received 18 written submissions, and held nine individual meetings and four roundtables. Our first round included 11 workshops with about 80 brokers and 14 written submissions. Three member surveys drew 243 responses. In all, more than 10,500 brokers were represented through NIBA's first round consultation, showing the importance of the Code to the membership.
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The second round put the draft Code itself out for comment. Nineteen organisations and individuals submitted written feedback, 35 firms and individuals worked through the draft clause by clause, and 515 members joined a webinar on it. More than 300 pieces of feedback came in from that round. Every one was mapped to the clause it addressed, and each has a recorded decision.
Those numbers measure more than effort. They measure listening. Between the draft and the final Code, we changed 21 clauses because of what we heard.
Listening is not the same as agreeing. It means weighing every view and then deciding. Feedback did not always point the same way. On the hardest questions, the Board had to make a call. Our consultation report, to be released with the Code, sets out what we heard and why we landed where we did.
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Feedback we did not adopt still did its job. It made us test the reasoning behind every call. A Code that has been argued over is a Code that can stand on its own.
The 2022 Code had 12 sections. The 2027 Code has 14. Two are entirely new: managing conflicts of interest and keeping client records. NIBA's comparison with the 2022 Code counts 60 new provisions, and the minimum notice before a policy renewal doubles, from 14 days to 28. This is not a revision of one clause. It is a modernised Code.
And it is written in plain English, addressed to clients, as the profession's public commitment to them.
Read from the client's side, those numbers become things a client will actually experience:
Many good brokers already do these things. Every broker bound by the Code must.
Some of the change sits behind the desk, where clients will rarely see it but will feel it. Conflicts obligations that were spread across four sections of the 2022 Code now sit together in one, and must be applied consistently across a business. Staff must be trained to support clients experiencing vulnerability when they join, and again every year. Client records must be complete, accurate and secure, and kept until any complaint, dispute or claim is resolved. And annual reporting to the Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee is now written into the Code itself.
Each of these was weighed against the balance that has run through this series: what clients need, what regulation requires, and what a growing profession can sustain. Obligations that need new systems, processes or training must be met in full within 12 months of the Code taking effect. The Code lists them by subject: strata, remuneration disclosure, vulnerability, records and renewal. Everything else applies from day one. A firm that needs more time can ask NIBA for up to six more months and must tell the Code Compliance Committee it has asked.
The Code takes effect on 1 January 2027, and every existing Code Subscriber must adopt it by then. Between now and January, NIBA will help Code Subscribers make the change with a map from the 2022 Code to the 2027 Code and section-by-section Implementation Guidance. We will also publish a plain-English guide for clients on what they can expect from their broker.
This is the final piece in this series. It is not the final word on the Code. NIBA will arrange for the Code to be independently reviewed at least every five years, and will review and amend any provision without delay if needed to make it work as intended. That is how a Code stays future-ready.
I want to thank everyone who made time to work through the draft: brokers from sole practitioners to the largest multinationals, regulators and government agencies, the external dispute resolution scheme, consumer and financial counselling organisations, professional bodies and the Code Compliance Committee.
A code is the standard a profession chooses to be judged against. This one asks more of brokers than the Code it replaces. NIBA's job now is to help every broker meet it. For more than 14,000 brokers, it is the new floor. For the Australian families, businesses and communities who rely on them, it sets out, in plain English, what good broking looks like.
Richard Klipin is Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA)
