A spat has broken out between Aon and the International Institute for Complementary Therapists (IICT), months after the two ended their three-year insurance arrangement.

Aon has rejected the NSW-based therapist group’s accusation that the giant broker “blatantly and deceptively” poached its members.

IICT represents more than 12,500 natural therapists, who have access to the insurance program as members of the group.

The partnership between Aon and the group ended on January 31 when IICT switched to BMS Insurance.

insuranceNEWS.com.au understands the two sides have started talks through their lawyers to resolve the matter. They 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 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 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 last 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.”