Brokers should take on a broader advisory role to meet the expectations of clients grappling with new risks, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

“To achieve growth brokers will need to look to the emerging risk areas,” PWC partner and New Zealand Insurance Sector Leader David Lamb told the Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand conference in Auckland on Thursday.

“We’re at a crossroads and brokers have a choice – to compete for increasingly commoditised standard risks or lead risk facilitation, which will open up commercial opportunities.”

Mr Lamb was presenting findings from a PWC report – Broking 2020: Leading from the front in a new era of risk.

The report is based on surveys of risk buyers from multinational corporations, as well as interviews with executives from Willis Group, Marsh and Aon Benfield.

He says the findings “resonate with the local broking community”, and the report highlights opportunities to help companies that do not have the same resources as multinationals.

“If you drop down to SMEs or private businesses, you wouldn’t necessarily have that in-house capability to deal with risk assessment,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“Therefore I think, in that market, there is an opportunity for brokers.”

The report says cyber and supply chain risks are key business concerns, but industry groups and carriers rely on brokers as the main source of potential solutions.

“Becoming the go-to partners for developing and co-ordinating innovative and effective solutions in these priority areas is at the heart of the commercial opportunity for brokers,” the report says.

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