Berns Brett Group director lifts the lid on success, Ogden, accreditation

Commercial broker and risk manager has seen three of its businesses achieve CII chartered status this year

Berns Brett Group director lifts the lid on success, Ogden, accreditation

Insurance News

By Lucy Hook

At the end of last month, Sussex-based broker BBi Horsham was awarded Chartered Insurance Broker status – becoming the third business in the Berns Brett Group (BBi) to achieve the accreditation this year.

The BBi Group has been established as an independent insurance broker, financial adviser and risk manager for over 50 years, with operations spanning the UK and overseas. Wholly-owned subsidiary BBi Horsham is the Group’s leader for all personal insurances, handling corporate insurance & schemes, predominantly in the in the South East region.

David Skinner, group director at Berns Brett, spoke to Insurance business about the Group’s current focuses, the challenges of Ogden and Brexit, and achieving chartered status.

What are the BBi businesses focusing on at the moment? Are there any particular areas of business that are seeing growth?

BBi is quite a diverse business with associated businesses in Ireland, the UAE and India. We aim to provide service levels that are the envy of our competitors, across all business operations. In the UK corporate space, we are seeing growth in Property Investors, Social Housing/Not for Profit/Care, Motor Trade, Medical Malpractice and High Risk Liabilities. The retail business is seeing good growth in private clients plus scheme and affinity business.

How have the businesses been affected by the various challenges facing the insurance industry at the moment – Ogden, Brexit, etc?

Ogden has been interesting. We have seen some re-reserving on some existing claims that bring the potential claim dangerously close to the insured’s indemnity limit. We have been keeping clients informed of the changes and, in many cases, are recommending that clients increase their indemnity limits. With Brexit, it’s too early to tell what effect that will have. There are bound to be many hurdles along the way for BBi and our clients but for many it will be business as usual.

What work went into the latest CII accreditation and how has BBi group reached this milestone for three business in this year alone?

We firstly had to get buy in from all staff. We explained the value of Chartered Status and how this could differentiate BBi against some of our competitors. Having always encouraged professional qualifications, we ticked the required boxes for many of the requirements from day one. BBi Financial Planning Ltd achieved accreditation first, and other group companies had already adopted the policies and procedures required during this process.

Securing Chartered Status for three of our businesses has come at a very special time in our Group’s history. Once again this is testament to the emphasis we place on all our employees to gain professional qualifications and to provide the highest standard of advice and service to our customers.


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