| Financial services products can seem confusing to | | | | speak to someone that you feel at ease with. If |
| many people. Whilst it is little consolation, it is true | | | | you are through to a call centre and it is obvious |
| that most of these are considerably easier to | | | | that they are reading from a script and not |
| understand in 2010 than, say, 10 or 15 years ago. | | | | understanding your business, then politely put the |
| Insurance companies, in particular, have been quite | | | | phone down. If you get through to a website that |
| rightly criticised in the past for having policy | | | | allows you to input the data and then they give |
| wordings which were far to complex for most of | | | | you a quote, you need to ask yourself, where is |
| us to understand. | | | | the advice? |
| To try and justify the need for policies to be so | | | | Finding the right policy is not easy, do not make it |
| lengthy, you have to understand that they need | | | | harder by not taking advantage of a good |
| to stand up to the test of UK law. For every | | | | independent broker. Their service, to provide a |
| person that has sat down and said that the small | | | | quote is free and they are legally obliged to offer |
| print "is in the insurers favour" another person has | | | | you the best product they can for the best price. |
| used that small print to get a claim paid out. | | | | Traditionally, brokers also have a much wider |
| Nearly every policy wording has been tested, not | | | | choice of insurers they can speak to when |
| necessarily by a qualified lawyer, but by a broker | | | | obtaining quotes. |
| questioning why a claim has been turned down. | | | | Part of the brokers service is to be able to |
| This applies particularly to commercial insurance. | | | | interpret the wordings for you. If there is a quote |
| By their very nature, these policies do need to | | | | which is very cheap, in fact too cheap, the |
| cover more eventualities than a normal house or | | | | brokers job is to point out the reasons why. You |
| car policy. As a result, they are more wordy. A | | | | may have five different pub insurance quotes, |
| simple shop insurance policy can easily be 60 or | | | | four are over a thousand pounds and one is for |
| 70 pages long, and as we all know from | | | | GBP 600. There is a reason why one is this |
| experience, the fonts are very small! | | | | cheap, it could be that you need to have a much |
| When looking for a small business insurance quote, | | | | more expensive intruder alarm, the excesses are |
| you will be amazed at the number of companies, | | | | high or cover may be excluded. The brokers role |
| both brokers and insurers, that offer these | | | | is to point this out, clearly and concisely. |
| product to you. When you do receive your quote, | | | | If you simply press a few buttons on a website |
| you may be provided with a sample policy | | | | that "offers" to compare business insurance, it is |
| wording. You know that you really should look at | | | | not always clear why company a is better than |
| this wording to ensure that it provides you with | | | | company b. If you choose the cheapest and then |
| the cover you need, but they can be difficult to | | | | find out later that it was cheap because you had |
| interpret. | | | | cover excluded, you do not have many rights |
| It is not a case of choosing one, two or three | | | | because you are deemed to have deliberately |
| companies to quote. A simple search on the net | | | | chosen that product, after considering all of the |
| will give you a list of hundreds of business | | | | alternatives. |
| insurance brokers and insurers to choose from. | | | | Finding the right quote is easy, you just need to |
| So, your first test is to choose which company to | | | | get someone else to do it for you. |
| use. We cannot help you on this, you need to | | | | |