Check to see if & what you are charged in brokerage fees. May be
cheaper for you to deal direct with insurer yourself.
Also brokers (not all) get a kickback/commission from the insurer (not
all) so using a broker is no guarantee you're getting the best deal.
Thats the advantage of doing the research yourself. Dosent take long at
all. Most insurers have online quotes you can complete & have an online
PDS for you to review the coverage included.
Dont know about income protection quotes on-line tho. Havent come
across an insurers site that has that provision provided.
That's correct, but misleading at the same time. Depending on who you are dealing with, most brokers/agents will get a commission and will also charge a fee for their time. The fee is normally pretty negotiable but some brokers would rather lose the business than write it without an arrangement fee, and the commission will have been negotiated wih the insurer in advance. Brokers and agents are required to provide you with a statement of any affiliations, commissions, fees or charges being paid.
Just like everything to do with insurance, people don't read what they're given and therefore make their decision based on part facts... then bitch and moan when they find something out later.
As far as a broker/agent being more expensive, that is not necessarily the case and often it is quite the opposite. The commission paid to a broker/agent is what they are paid to do the servicing of the policy. Eg. the insurer might charge $1000 to insure you plus cover all the day-to-day maintenance like paperwork, policy changes, claims, renewals, etc.
Instead, you might go through a broker who takes a $300 commission to cover policy maintenance, and then forward the insurer their $700 for the actual insurance itself. Add to that the fact that brokers can often offer insurance you can't get directly (eg. some companies don't sell business insurance directly but you can get it from them through a broker), and in some cases have discretionary discounts available, then you can often get a better deal through a broker.
I know, because I have both worked for an insurer AND an intermediary.
