It can be said that one of the most important functions of the emergence of the role of insurance broker is to balance the information inequality among policyholders, insurers and insurance agents in the insurance market, and help policyholders to better realize their insurance interests and safeguard their own insurance rights and interests. Of course, in this process, insurance brokerage activities also contribute to the success of insurance transactions, help insurance companies expand insurance business, increase premiums, create an objective and fair insurance market ecology, and promote the development of the insurance industry.
However, it should be noted that the description of the role function and role positioning of insurance brokers in the above content is mainly from the perspective of theoretical research. In practice, whether an insurance broker can effectively play the above roles and functions and become an "ally" of the insured from the perspective of the interests of the insured mainly depends on the environmental background and development degree of the specific insurance market.
1. In the domestic insurance market environment, the role, function and status of insurance brokers are as mentioned above. The theoretical role, function and position of insurance brokers have different performances in different insurance market environments. For example, British insurance brokers and German insurance brokers can give full play to the roles and functions of professional insurance consultation, financial planning, insurance claims, etc., to help policyholders better fight for insurance benefits and help regulate the insurance business market. However, in China, due to the immature insurance market, the development of the insurance broker system itself is also slightly slow, and the corresponding legal system construction and supervision mechanism are not perfect, which can not give full play to the role function and role position of insurance brokers.
Insurance market environment?
In the development of domestic insurance intermediary system, insurance agents appeared before insurance brokers and occupied the dominant position in the insurance intermediary market for a long time. The development of insurance broker system is relatively slow, and the public knows little about insurance brokers, and even often confuses the roles of insurance brokers and insurance agents.
At the same time, due to the early marketing model of life insurance agents, insurance companies excessively pursued the scale of premiums, adopted "crowd tactics" and neglected the training and management of insurance agents, which caused a series of market chaos, caused many reputational stains to the insurance industry and caused considerable resistance to the business development of insurance brokers. Under the unfavorable conditions of lack of market trust, it is difficult for insurance brokers to further develop consulting and planning business and give full play to their functions and functional advantages, which can only be limited to insurance sales services.
Legal system construction and supervision?
China's insurance broker system developed late, and China's relevant laws, regulations and supervision system are still not perfect. At present, the legal basis for reference mainly includes Insurance Law, Regulations on the Management of Insurance Brokers, Regulations on the Supervision of Insurance Brokers, etc., but the relevant contents have been basically institutionalized and standardized, and the details of insurance brokerage business, behavior, market access and punishment are not clearly defined.
For example, the commission system of insurance brokers.
The Insurance Law stipulates that an insurance broker is an institution that provides intermediary services for the insured to conclude an insurance contract with the insurer based on the interests of the insured, and collects commissions according to law.
As can be seen from the above concepts, the Insurance Law stipulates the insurance status of insurance brokers, that is, "putting the interests of the insured first"; At the same time, it is also pointed out that insurance brokers collect commissions according to law. At present, the commission here mainly refers to the policy commission paid by the insurance company to the insurance broker after the policy transaction is facilitated.
This is actually a contradiction, that is, on the one hand, we should maintain our position based on the interests of the insured, on the other hand, our commission income comes from the insurance company. The former requires insurance brokers to be objective and neutral in providing insurance scheme services and safeguard the insurance rights and interests of policyholders; The latter may lead to the risk of insurance brokers' position in providing insurance scheme services, which can not guarantee objectivity and neutrality, and even harm the interests of customers for their own interests or the needs of insurance companies.
Therefore, the position of domestic insurance broker is actually risky. At present, in the insurance intermediary market, there are professional brokerage companies that focus on improving their professional level and providing professional consulting and insurance services for policyholders, as well as some brokerage companies. In their business operations, the brokerage commission ratio has become the primary index for them to choose insurance companies. They simply pursue high commission ratio and give up their professional status.
Industry self-discipline and credit rating?
The commission system from insurance companies also exists in the mature insurance broker market abroad, but the position risk of insurance brokers is controllable, which is mainly affected by two factors.
First, the income source of foreign insurance brokers is not only the commission from insurance companies, but also the "consulting fee" for providing consulting advice to policyholders;
Secondly, the strict and systematic supervision mechanism of foreign insurance intermediary market.
There are relatively perfect laws and regulations in the insurance intermediary market in various countries, and there are clear legal provisions in terms of qualification, access, behavior supervision and behavior punishment. In addition, in addition to the regulatory power from government agencies, the self-discipline of industry organizations and social credit evaluation also play an important role in regulating the market behavior of insurance brokers.
For example, in the credit rating system of the United States, the practice of insurance brokers is greatly influenced by authoritative credit rating agencies, and once their credit rating is lowered, it will be difficult to move; Another example is Lloyd's, a British professional insurance broker organization, whose industry norms and standards are much higher than those of state organs and play an important role in regulating the market behavior of insurance brokers. However, both the self-discipline of industry organizations and the construction of credit rating are relatively lacking in China.
To sum up, the role, function and status of domestic insurance brokers have been affected to some extent because of the imperfect insurance market environment and laws and regulations environment in China.
2. The development of the domestic insurance broker system The above analysis is more about the influence of some external environmental factors on the role, function and status of insurance brokers, but in fact, regardless of insurance brokers or insurance agents, the subjective professional ethics and professional ethics of employees are also important factors affecting their intermediary service status.
For example, among the insurance agents, there are not a few agents with high insurance professional knowledge and high professional ethics. Even if the insurance agency relationship is defined as "operating insurance business on behalf of the insurer within the scope authorized by the insurer", it does not mean that the agency commission must be obtained at the expense of consumers' interests. Insurance agents can also improve customer stickiness and expand market business through professional and high-quality insurance services.
The same is true of insurance brokers, and compared with insurance agents, insurance brokers have natural industry advantages: even if they can't rely on customer consulting fees to form income sources and rely heavily on insurance commissions at present, the difference between insurance brokers and insurance agents lies in the large choice space. After all, multiple choices are different from one choice, which can help them maintain an objective and neutral role orientation. ?
At the same time, with the increasing insurance demand of the public, faced with the incomprehensible professional insurance product knowledge, insurance clauses and insurance claims operation, people have an increasingly strong market demand for more professional, objective and neutral "allies" other than insurance agents. This market demand catalyzes the development of insurance brokers, and also makes insurance brokers pay more attention to the development and promotion of their professional quality and service level. For example, some insurance agents' induction training mainly focuses on various sales skills, while professional insurance brokerage companies mainly focus on insurance knowledge and insurance services.
In addition, in recent years, the supervision of insurance brokers by domestic insurance regulatory authorities has become more and more strict, relevant policies and regulations have been constantly updated and improved, and the construction of constraints from industry organizations and credit rating system has also developed initially, which has provided favorable conditions for the further development and improvement of China's insurance broker system.
Since the birth of China's insurance broker system, as an important part of the insurance intermediary market, insurance brokers have had an important impact on the development of consumers and the insurance industry. Insurance brokers are different from insurance agents mainly because of their unique roles, functions and status. However, as far as the overall environment of domestic insurance market is concerned, the role, function and position of domestic insurance brokers are difficult to give full play, and it still needs further development and improvement.