This article gave me mixed emotions.
I was sad for the small business owners and how dismayed they must have felt to discover the vast amount they were paying to a broker in undisclosed fees, and then I felt motivated to explain that not all commercial brokers out there operate this way.
Some brokers do it differently and I'm proud to be one of them. A few years back, I asked myself how am I going to play a part in changing a sector that needs a massive overhaul and how could I make a meaningful impact.
Turns out, an excellent foundation had already begun by people who shared the same ethos, 12 years ago Frank Risk (Frank) looked at this issue and thought there has got to be a better way for businesses in NZ who need insurance and want to know exactly where their money is going. They became disruptors in the industry with the aim to create a fairer structure with the costs involved in insurance.
The more I work with clients under the Frank model of charging a fair transparent fee for professional services and nothing more, I see what a difference it makes! Oh, and it's pretty cool to be 100% New Zealand owned and operated with all revenue staying in New Zealand not going to large overseas corporates.
What is fee transparency?
In practical terms, what does this model of broking mean for business owners?
Transparency looks like this on an invoice:
Your insurance costs $X
Our professional service fee is $X
Pretty simple right, clients get to see the cost of their insurance and then see what they are paying as a professional fee to their broker. No hidden commission, no kickbacks, no profit share agreements, just us acting for a client, independently without any conflict of interest. There is a lot of internal satisfaction and joy that comes with helping someone in a meaningful way and one by one we may just show there is another way to operate without creating situations like the one mentioned in the Stuff article.
“Nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world”.
It is a no-brainer for me.
