Difficult market conditions and claims experiences are encouraging more small businesses to consider using brokers, the final episode of a feature podcast series on the Vero SME Insurance Index has highlighted.

Vero Head of Commercial Intermediaries Anthony Pagano says brokers are valued for helping businesses understand risks they may never have considered and for their role in simplifying the insurance process.

“We’ve seen many businesses for example, that are newly established or have changed their business model, and they are also more likely to consider using a broker,” he tells the podcast.

The Vero SME index found that 40% of SMEs purchased their last policy through a broker, up from 35% last year, while 72% of broker clients who made a claim were satisfied compared to only 37% of direct clients.

National Insurance Brokers Association President and BJS Insurance Group Operations Manager Dianne Phelan says some clients have returned to brokers after less satisfactory claims experiences in the direct market, while the hard market has forced many businesses to rethink their risks.

“It’s difficult to do that alone, whereas brokers have a lot of expertise in that area and a lot of tools available to them to actually talk about their risk and managing their risk so that then they have a compelling story to put to insurers to actually get the best outcome for them,” she says.

Broker value is the focus of the final episode in a special three-part podcast series examining findings from Vero’s SME Insurance Index report.

Mr Pagano discusses the issues, along with the INsight panel of Insurance News Managing Director Andrew Silcox, Publisher Terry McMullan and Managing Editor John Deex, while the podcast also includes broking industry perspectives and viewpoints.

See all INsight episodes here.