Latest News from Read Insurance

We are proud to announce that we have now joined the Institute of Insurance Brokers, which is a trade association for members of our profession. More importantly from a client's point of view, it also promotes the highest standards of professionalism in our industry and requires its' members to adhere to the best principles and practice. 

Once again Read Insurance Brokers Limited has sent out a client questionnaire to judge whether clients are happy - and the response was a unanimous "Yes". 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. A cheque is on its' way to Help for Heroes based on £1 for every response we received. 

Read Insurance Brokers has grown every year since launch and 2010 has witnessed another succcessful year of excellent growth.

Clients appear to appreciate the service because in 2010, we had the second highest growth rate of all the 50+ broking firms in the Ten Insurance Services network.   

Managing Director at Ten, Malcolm Lee, commmented: "The declaration aims to create an environment that encourages and supports personal and professional development, raising levels of knowledge and enhancing performance. These are all values that we wholeheartedly endorse and I'm delighted to offer the declaration our full support."

Alasdair Stewart, head of corporate development at the Chartered Insurance Institute (which is based at Aldermanbury, London) stated that "Ten's suppport for the declaration and its' key principles shows its' commitment to the market at large and their customers specifically".

It is precisely for this type of reason that Read Insurance Brokers is pleased to be part of this excellent network. 

Our first newsletter was sent in the summer of 2010 by post and we had some very postive feedback from it. We also received some very nice enquiries from it, which was very encouraging!

For our latest newsletter, we switched to an email template and that is the way we shall send all future issues. This was emailed a week ago and it has been very well received - with no complaints and no unsubscribes to date (fingers crossed)! 

If you would like to receive future issues of our newsletter, please click on the link on this website. It is full of useful information which could help your business. 

Although the number of insurance broking firms overall has significantly reduced in the last decade, the number of start-up firms has increased significantly since 2005. The emergence of broker network organizations have enabled entrepreneurial account handlers to break away and set up on their own. Their businesses may be smaller individually, but they are still subject to strict regulation. As members of networks, they are often larger than their previous employers when it comes to the all-important purchasing power and access to insurance company markets.    

Such a bouyant and competitive broking market can only be good for consumers.

Ten Insurance Services Limited provide administrative, accounts and compliance functions for Read Insurance Brokers Limited.

Ten held their fourth conference in London over the weekend from the 8th to the 10th October 2010.

The network has grown from zero to fifty three broking firms since 2005. Read Insurance Brokers Limited was the tenth broker to sign up - in March 2006.

In the past week, at least two stories have appeared in the press concerning insurance fraud. 

In the first, the Insurance Fraud Bureau has confirmed that four people have been charged by the City of London Police in connection with a multi-million pound fraud, which involved money laundering. 

The insurance industry has very sophisticated measures to combat fraud and it takes great pains to detect and prosecute those who commit it. All insurers have counter fraud teams and this week we learn that Groupama Insurance have strengthened theirs.

We are often asked by businesses where they might obtain good (and free!) advice on health and safety. 

When a business needs to implement a full health and safety policy or review what they already have, we are more than happy to recommend companies who we know can do a good job. However, sometimes only a small piece of information is required. An excellent starting point is the Health and Safety Executive, the independent agency whose responsibility it is to monitor and advise on health and safety in the workplace and to prosecute those businesses and individuals who flout the law. 

Their website is www.hse.gov.uk and there you can find many very useful leaflets and publications.   

If you need information, we suggest you get it from the people whose job it is to know the latest facts. 

Allianz have won the "General Insurer of the Year" award in the 2010 British Insurance Awards, which was held at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this week. Others shortlisted were Fortis, Hiscox and QBE. 

The Met Office has stated that the rainfall in Britain over the last six months has been the lowest for more than forty five years and there are fears that such dry weather could lead to a huge surge in subsidence claims. 

Subsidence is generally automatically included under household building insurances, unless there is a good reason for it to be excluded (such as previous claims history, or poor geological factors). For commercial properties, the cover is usually purchased as an "extra", as it is not generally automatically included.

Cover is always subject to a large excess - typically from £1,000 to £5,000 depending on area. 

In Tuesday's Emergency Budget, it was announced that the rate of Insurance Premium Tax will rise from 5% to 6% with effect from the 4th January 2011. At the same time, the higher rate of 17.5% levied on all travel insurance policies, will rise to 20%. 

Although any increase in tax is never welcome, the increase is not as high as many in the industry feared it could be. Insurance Premium Tax was introduced in 1994, when the rate was 2.5%. It rose to 4% in 1997 and 5% in 1999. It has therefore been unchanged for eleven years, so many felt a more substantial increase was inevitable. 

In 1997 the higher band was introduced for travel insurance and certain types of warranty insurances.  

The insurance industry never stands still and there are always new products available and new issues which affect business owners.

For this reason, Read Insurance Brokers Limited is launching a quarterly news and information letter which will be sent to all clients and prospects of the company. 

If you are not yet a client, but would like to receive this information, please use the "Contact us" page of this website.  

Whether it is an increased awareness of potential risks, or whether it is because so many businesses have fragile finances in the current economic climate, Read Insurance Brokers has witnessed a substantial increase in the take-up of insurances, which were seen by many as "extras" a few years ago.

Clients are now taking up legal expenses insurance as a matter of course, loss recovery insurance is more popular and we are getting more enquiries for Directors' & Officers' Liability insurance.

For more information on these essential products, please contact the office.  

A client feedback questionnaire was sent to clients a little time ago to gauge how clients perceived the service from Read Insurance Brokers Limited. The response was very positive and in appreciation for the replies, the company made a cash donation to Julia’s House for every response received. The names of all respondents were put into a “hat” and three lucky winners each won £25.  A cheque for £80 was sent to Julia’s House, which is a hospice for children in Broadstone, Dorset.

Another feedback of some sort is likely to be undertaken in the coming months.
 

Read Insurance Brokers Limited has recently completed its’ fourth year in business and is working hard to achieve another year of strong growth.

The emphasis continues to be on providing commercial insurance services to the small and medium enterprises market.  

The company remains committed to the Ten Insurance Services Limited network, which has sixty broking firm members across the UK. In being part of something much bigger, Read Insurance Brokers’ clients are dealing with a firm where personal attention is given, but also one which can compete with the larger broker using the access it has to excellent insurance market facilities.