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General Description

This is an ideal career for analytical thinkers. An insurance broker is an independent professional who finds and secures insurance policies for clients, to prevent them having financial loss. You use your knowledge of risks and the insurance market to find the most appropriate insurance policy. Your clients may be individuals or commercial businesses and organisations. Insurance brokers are not tied to any one company, and so can offer clients the products from a range of insurers to guarantee the best policy for their particular situation. 

The main types of insurance are: life, disability, trauma, health, property and public liability. Life insurance guarantees a certain sum of money to the client’s family if the client dies. Disability insurance deals with long term injury, illness or disablement resulting from people being diagnosed with debilitating diseases such as motor neurone, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and can no longer lead their usual life.

Trauma insurance deals with a defined sudden event – perhaps a stroke, heart attack or physical collapse triggered by the unknown but leaving you in a disabled state either temporarily or permanently. Health insurance will prevent the client against the financial loss from medical bills due to ill health. Property insurance protects your valuable assets in the event of damage or theft whilst public liability insurance protects you or your business against a claim from accidental damage by the public.

What you do every day

As an insurance broker you may:

You will also need to spend time on administrative tasks such as managing, reviewing and updating client files; maintaining paperwork and correspondence; securing clients from competitors; and collecting insurance premiums and processing accounts. 

Personality that best fits this occupation

Overall, insurance brokers must have an interest in insurance, commerce and business, and the ability to make accurate calculations and offer beneficial advice. You should be good at mathematics, with a flair for calculations and enjoy all things analytical. In dealing with a variety of insurance policies, you will need to pay attention to detail, and make sound judgements. 

To succeed at being an insurance broker, you must be a good salesperson with the ability to talk persuasively and in a manner that relaxes your client. You need to enjoy working with people and have good communication skills to interact with clients effectively during consultations and meetings. As you may be working on a commission basis, you will need to project yourself as a confident, knowledgeable, trustworthy and capable individual. You will need confidence, persuasiveness, and mental stamina. 

Best thing about this career

Insurance broking is a mentally active and valuable profession. Some of the best salespeople are in this profession. You have the responsibility of advising clients on the best possible policies, so your income increases on each successful recommendation you make and your database grows.

Your work can be fascinating and rewarding, and the advice you give, with consequent claims, can give you a great sense of job satisfaction. The position opportunities for an insurance broker are increasing with the rising interest in insurance in these unstable times.

Worst thing about this career

Although the rate of employment in this field is increasing, you may find that working on commission can be very difficult. You need to develop a client base which takes time and patience with a low cash flow during this development period. As policies are constantly changing you need to forever adjust your knowledge to know exactly what policies, at that exact moment, will be best suited to your clients’ situation and price range.

Clients trust you to make accurate judgements regarding their insurance, and judge you on your recommendations. Bad advice will result in financial hardship for your client.