CII announces the formation of new forum

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) wants to ensure that the profession meets the expectations of consumers going forward – and to facilitate this, it has created a new forum.

Known as the Chartered Transparency Forum, the idea is to bring together legal experts, consumer representatives and practitioners across the profession. It aims to calculate the insurance expectation gap in terms of what a consumer understands and what is actually covered in a policy; publish and promote guidance; identify learning materials; and lead a campaign to promote standards and learning.

The group includes:

• Melissa Collett, professional standards director of the CII, as chair;
• Peter Blanc, group chief executive of Aston Lark;
• Graham Trudgill, executive director of British Insurance Brokers Association;
• James Daley, managing director of Fairer Finance;
• James Dalton, director of general insurance policy of the Association of British Insurers;
• Mandy Hunt, chief underwriting officer of RSA Commercial and Society of Underwriting Professionals member;
• Philip Williams, managing director of Simply Business MGA and Society of Underwriting Professionals member;
• Jennette Newman, partner of Clyde & Co and chair of the Professional Standards Committee of the CII;
• Dr Matthew Connell, policy and public affairs director of the CII; and
• Ian Simons, customer director of the CII.

“When people buy insurance, they are buying a promise of help when things go wrong,” said CII CEO Sian Fisher. “But too often, there is an expectation gap between what customers thought that promise was and what the provider intended. To improve trust, we must understand exactly what leads to that gap, and how we can reduce it together.

“This forum will establish ‘what good looks like’ and encourage good practice across the profession. I look forward to working with everyone who wants to build trust in insurance to put the insights of the forum to good use and establish principles for the profession to follow.”