Brokers were reminded of the importance of providing detailed information when the profession’s code compliance committee appeared at a conference hosted by insurtech Curium in Sydney last month.

Daniela Kirchlinde and Carli Kidd of the Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee told the audience half of the breaches they investigated involved renewals.

“A code is not just a minimum standard but it’s your promise to your client,” Ms Kirchlinde said. “It may seem like rules and audits to you. But for clients, compliance is about confidence and trust in you serving them well.

“That’s where the code comes in – it follows the client through the journey.”

She says the committee is interested in the stories behind the breaches.

“If you provide just bare numbers, you will get a call from us: ‘We don’t understand what this means, tell us the real story.’

“So in the same way as when you report internally to the board and executive management, don’t just say how many breaches you had this year compared to last, but how confident are you that have found the issues causing them and understand how to fix them.”

Ms Kirchlande says brokers need to know how a client has been affected – $1000 may be a lot of money to some customers.

A renewal notice that was not sent due to human error may highlight a host of different breaches, such as lack of clear communication or poor complaints handling.

Various remediation actions may be triggered by one incident. Ten emails going to wrong addresses amounts to 10 incidents but one breach.

Ms Kirchlande says a broker’s incidents register should be available to all staff, authorised representative and distribution agents.

“If you say, ‘It’s a human error, we will instigate staff training', is that good enough? What if it keeps happening? Maybe the system is wrong, maybe guidelines are poor.

“You don’t want complaints going to [the industry ombudsman] – it will cost you money, whether the client was right or you were right. And you want to keep the client. And the client has friends. And there is the brand and social media risk.”