The Insurance Broker

Abstract Some contracts of professional indemnity insurance are negotiated and made directly between the insured and insurers. For example, self-employed barristers in England and Wales arrange their primary insurance cover directly with their mutual insurer. However, most contracts are negotiated and made through intermediaries. The traditional intermediary is an insurance broker who acts for the insured. As such, he owes duties to his client, while at the same time acting as his client’s agent in dealing with insurers. Insurance intermediaries may also be agents of insurers. Sometimes one broker will instruct another broker to carry out a task which he has undertaken for a client, so that there will be both a broker and a sub-broker involved. The Financial Service and Markets Act 2000 has added a further dimension, because insurance intermediaries are now generally subject to regulation under that Act.