In major independent study, brokers’ grades put Brit Private Client first out of ten competing markets for new business, underwriting capabilities, documentation – and for service overall.
The new Highpoint HNW Home Report 2023/24 – published this week – ranks Brit Private Client the UK’s number one performer for overall service on HNW Home business, with an 84% score.
Brit Private Client ranked first for new business, underwriters and documentation with scores of 85%, 86% and 81%. It also excelled on quality of cover (second, 88%); claims handling (second, 84%); and renewals (second, 80%). On the separate issue of price competitiveness, Brit Private Client ranked second again. Brokers’ service-related comments on Brit Private Client totalled 77:3 positive and three mixed.
Tara Parchment, Head of Private Clients at Brit Insurance, commented:
“Brit Private Client launched in 2020 with an ambition to provide High Net Worth brokers and clients with outstanding service, underwriting excellence and access to decision makers. We have worked incredibly hard to deliver this and I am delighted with this recognition. Our brokers are an essential part of our success, and we thank them for all the support they’ve given us since we launched.”
Peter Joy, Director of Highpoint Consultants and the author of the Report, commented:
“Brokers’ grades and comments revealed a thoroughly impressive service from Brit Private Client. When they requested a quote, an underwriter would generally call back within the hour to discuss it. A full, accurate quotation would appear within a day, or two at the outside. Brokers found the Brit underwriting team knowledgeable, helpful and professional: they understood HNW clients, showed plenty of common sense and authority and worked hard to tailor the exact cover required, however tricky the case. The documentation then came through without delay and was accurate, well-structured and reader-friendly.”
On cover, the only market to outscore Brit Private Client was Chubb, which ranked tenth out of ten for price competitiveness. “Brokers found Brit’s wording broad, adaptable and suitable for largest and most sophisticated of HNW cases,’ said Mr Joy. “When claims arose, Brit Private Client’s three-strong claims handling team showed the same alert, personal service and dynamic efficiency as its underwriters. Frankly, brokers hadn’t had to involve themselves much at all.”
In the HNW market as a whole, the Report found, 2023 had been a difficult year for renewals: particularly for those with cases at Chubb, Covéa, Hiscox or Artsure, or with Distinct or ex-Azur cases at Aviva Private Clients. Rises of 20-25 per cent had been commonplace. “By contrast, Brit Private Client renewals were relatively plain sailing for brokers,’ said Mr Joy. “Terms had arrived in good time, cases had been properly reviewed and discussed and by current standards, increases had been pretty mild. Considering the quality of its service and cover, brokers were finding Brit Private Client outstanding value for money.”
The 2023 study showed a 33 per cent increase in the proportion of UK brokers using Brit Private Client since 2022. Mr Joy commented: ‘With just 16 staff, Brit Private Clients has a high power-to-weight ratio and few issues with hierarchy, process and bureaucracy. With management, senior underwriters and claims handlers close to hand, assistants can learn fast, communication is easy and any queries are quickly resolved.”
He added: “Brit Private Client clearly understands something that several large, established HNW markets seem to have forgotten: the value of personal relationships and, crucially, of time for a broker. Brokers need a quote within a day or two – not a week or two. They are finding Brit refreshingly simple and easy to trade with and as a result, it is winning a great deal of high-quality HNW business.”
Of the other nine featured HNW Home markets, GrovesJohnWestrup Private Clients ranked second for overall service, with Chubb third. Ecclesiastical was the year’s most-improved market, scoring 79% and taking fourth place. Hiscox ranked ninth with 63%, Artsure tenth and last with 58%.
About the Highpoint HNW Home Study and Report
Highpoint Consultants specialises in independent broker research. It has been publishing annual studies of insurers’ and MGAs’ performance in the UK broker market since 2014.
The latest HNW Home Report 2023/24 (92 pages, 60 charts), published in January 2024, provides comprehensive, comparative service performance profiles for ten HNW insurers and Managing General Agents: Artsure, Aviva Private Clients, Brit Private Client, Chubb, Covéa, Ecclesiastical, GrovesJohnWestrup Private Clients, Hiscox, Protect Underwriting, Zurich Private Clients.
The results and profiles are based squarely on detailed, confidential input to an invitation-only online questionnaire from 136 verified Private Client brokers at international, national and independent firms across the British Isles in a study that ran from June to October 2023. They graded the markets they had used during the previous six months for HNW Home risks of at least £3,000 premium on six key aspects of their service: new business; underwriters’ capabilities; documentation; quality of cover; claims handling; and renewals. Marks in these six areas were combined, using a ‘balanced scorecard’ method, to produce scores – and rankings – for overall service. Markets were also rated on their price competitiveness.
In all, brokers provided 4,410 service grades, 772 price competitiveness grades and 1,210 comments (708:400 positive and 102 mixed) on the markets covered in the study.
For further information on the Highpoint HNW Home Report 2023/24, see www.highpoint-consultants.com
