National Broker Survey: Top tech solution brokers want from carriers

Brokers worried about challenges faced when placing business during a hard market are looking to carriers for help with online claims service capabilities, said respondents to Canadian Underwriter’s 2023 National Broker Survey.

The survey polled 150 brokers nationwide about challenges facing the broker distribution channel.

Asked what kinds of technological help brokers desired from their carriers, 76% of brokers indicated online claims tracking would be the best way carriers could help brokers support their business objectives in 2023. That’s a sharp rise from 64% who called such tools a top need in 2022.

“With the current claims market, I am having to [be] more hands-on with claims than ever, as there aren’t enough adjusters in the industry to be able to properly assist a client,” said a woman who’s worked at a large brokerage for 16 or fewer years. “Knowing the ever-changing company rules and assisting in claims have been the most important factors in being a trusted advisor.”

Brokers’ desire for online claims submissions also rose, with 56% listing it as a key success driver in 2023, 9% higher than in 2022. Online policy renewals were seen as a top need by 58% of brokers in 2023, 4% higher than 2022.

Interestingly, though, there was a 5% decline in 2023 (to 65%) of brokers who said they wanted both quoting tools and broker portals that provide access to wordings, client policies and other materials.

That may reflect the broker’s desire to see a tech solution that starts and ends inside the broker management system.

We need “industry information across the board that effects results [for both] U.S. and Canada exposures,” said one respondent.

Another called for funding to “help pay for the tech needed for the broker to sell more of a carrier’s policies.”

More broadly, when considering factors that influence which products brokers recommend to customers, 85% of brokers cited a carrier’s underwriting flexibility as most important — up from a range of 79% to 81% during the prior four years. The survey, fielded in Feb. 2023, was made possible with the support of Sovereign Insurance.

Since the start of the pandemic, concerns about the client’s price point have ranged steadily from 69% to 72%. Considering respondents placed that unease at 65% in 2019, the shift beginning in 2020 helps illustrate how the hard market has impacted client cost sensitivities.

One broker at a smaller firm suggested the pricing issue can cut both ways.

“The industry is focused on price and not the quality of the product,” he said, “which erodes the principal of good faith.”

Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/Nicola Katie