The following article is courtesy of Insurr.
When starting out, brokers face the challenge of how to build up their portfolio. While training they may have been presented with reading materials to study for tests, as well as seminars – however, it will require years of experience in order for them to wrap their heads around all the different types of coverage areas and risks presented to them.
As technology develops, relying on old print directories and previous relationships is becoming outdated. While traditional personal lines tend to be steady in terms of writing up risks, more up-to-date methods are needed to meet constantly evolving and more inclusive demands from clients.
But how do brokers meet these ever-changing demands, especially when practicing for the first time? Not only do brokers have to keep up with emerging trends they also need to learn how to promote their specialist knowledge too. We spoke to Daniel Goldhar, a broker at CIBI (Canadian Insurance Brokers Inc), about the challenges a broker might face at the beginning of their career:
When you were training to be a broker what kinds of tools and resources did you have?
What was the biggest transition between when you qualified and started to practice?
What resources have you found for someone starting out…is there any kind of knowledge sharing or a standardized way of setting up?
At my last place somebody else did the quoting, somebody else did the marketing. I was never allowed to talk to the underwriter. Now you really have a lot of opportunity to learn and speak to these people who have so much experience. And so now I’m doing the quoting, the selling, the writing up the policy and it’s all in my own hands. I’m not waiting for anybody else.
How easy it to include specialty markets in an insurance policy?
There’s no standardized thing that you can send out and say this is what I want. Every industry I’m going for has different needs. You’re constantly working out coverages and price. The commercial side would benefit from being a bit more like CompuQuote where you can just quote on the system. It’s a little bit archaic on the commercial lines side.
Do you tend to use the same pool of companies and underwriters?
