Insurance brokers or not?

[jezza888]

All,

Want your advice on how to go about insurance...

I've got approx 7-8 policy's which I would like to re-insure.

-3 x rental propertys
-1 x PPOR
-2 x Cars
-1 x Motorbike
-1 x Pet

I've done my quotes for individual policys, and it seems i would need to insure with about 5 different company's to get the best deals.

I'm trying to simplify by going to a broker... is this the way they generally work.. they get all the best deals package it and just give you a total cost? or do they just find a company who can do all of it and go with them?

Do they look at the criteria you stipulate to them and they negotiate the best deals... will i get a discount for having X amount of policy's?

Never used a broker for insurance.. so any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Cheers
Jeremy

 

[jezza888]

Mods, can you move into Property investment - other..

 

[beachside]

It will come down to if you have the time to analyse all relevant policies to find the most appropriate - time consuming but I like to do things myself to an extent as others are not always as thorough.

I have found that brokers have a limited number of insurers that they deal with, therefore limiting your choice. And trusting their interpretation of coverage may not always be the best, especially inexperienced staff. I have been very frustrated calling some to get quotes - takes 2 days for them to call the insurer and get back to you sometimes. Calling the insurer direct is soooo much quicker.

On the plus side, they can handle your claim for you and sometimes have limited authority to settle it for you on behalf of the insurer.

I used to work in insurance, 99% was straight with the client but the odd broker we had to go through to get info from the client was a royal PITA! Talk about unnecessary middleman and slowing the process down.

 

[Paul@PFI]

Some brokers do personal insurances and others don't. They most likely would charge you a fee for service. There are a few online comparison services too like Choosi etc. Just remember they wont consider the whole market.

Many general insurers offer policy discounts for combined polies. GIO / NRMA both do this. My latest NRMA was a strange beast. I added another car and it meant we had 4 cars so the discount went up for all vehicles. I mentioned I needed to remove a car. They told me to cancel one of the cars on another call so I don't lose discount for a whole year.