The AIRMIC guidelines welcome the industry guidance prepared by the British Insurance Brokers Association and the London and International Insurance Brokers’ Association and recently endorsed by the UK Financial Services Authority (click here to see our previous post) but emphasise that buyers are entitled to additional information on intermediary status and remuneration, and therefore go beyond the minimum disclosures set out in the industry guidance. They highlight potential conflicts of interest and how those conflicts can be identified by risk managers. The guidelines also identify areas in which the standard disclosure letters proposed by the industry guidance are deficient.
The AIRMIC guidelines include an Appendix (Appendix C) setting out a list of issues to be discussed by a buyer with its broker, including remuneration, business relationships, the scope of the broker’s market search and the provision of claims services.
The new guidelines replace AIRMIC’s original ‘questions for brokers’ produced in 2004 in response to the Spitzer investigations.