Aon Australia has been accused by an association that terminated its insurance partnership of “blatantly and deceptively poaching” its members – a charge the giant broker has rejected.

The spat broke out after the NSW-based International Institute for Complementary Therapists (IICT) formally ended its three-year contract with the broker on January 31 in favour of a new arrangement with BMS Insurance.

The IICT represents more than 12,500 natural therapists.

insuranceNEWS.com.au understands Aon and IICT began talks through their lawyers last week to resolve the matter. The two sides declined to speak on the record about the status of the talks.

In an email sent to IICT members on August 20 and seen by insuranceNEWS.com.au, founder Lawrence Taylor Ellyard says Aon ignored “formal cease and desist requests” and had continued to “utilise our intellectual property on their promotional materials in an attempt to persuade members to leave IICT”.

The email says Aon “is blatantly and deceptively poaching IICT members, both through targeted online advertising and email by utilising an email address: au.iict@aon.com that arrives in the recipient’s inbox from IICT Mailbox”.

“They have even gone as far as to utilise our logos and business name to denote that ‘IICT proudly supports Aon’.

“Rest assured, IICT is presently seeking all legal means to stop Aon from falsely misrepresenting IICT and continuing to deceive members in order to retain policies.”

But in a statement sent to insuranceNEWS.com.au this week, Aon says it has “at all times been clear and transparent” in telling IICT members who have bought insurance from it that the partnership ended on January 31.

“Aon’s professional duties to its clients continued after termination of the affiliation, which included communicating to those clients in relation to the renewal of the insurance products arranged by Aon,” the statement says.

“As consumers of insurance products, IICT members have the right to make an informed choice of which provider they use for their insurance services.”

Mr Ellyard says the group switched to BMS due to Aon “being unwilling to offer more competitive insurance rates to members and a seamless membership and insurance integrated portal”.

“The decision to move from Aon to BMS was simply to provide a better insurance rate, and a range of cover with an easier customer experience without having to purchase insurance through an external provider, as was the case with Aon.”

BMS Australia CEO Andrew Godden declined to discuss the matter when contacted by insuranceNEWS.com.au.