Steadfast MD Robert Kelly has called for alignment between the insurance brokers’ and general insurers’ codes of practice.

Currently, insurers can make offers that breach the brokers’ code, knowing there is no sanction on them for doing so, he says.

“The contravention sits with the brokers,” Mr Kelly told the National Insurance Brokers Association convention last week.

“We need to get the codes aligned so there are sanctions both ways.”

For example, an insurer might tell a broker it will pay higher commission if the broker restricts its offer to four or five players, Mr Kelly told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Or an insurer might offer an incentive to a broker that writes most of its business with the insurer.

Mr Kelly says offers that restrict distribution put the broker at risk of not acting in clients’ best interests. He wants the manufacture of product and distribution aligned in the codes.

His comments came in a panel discussion on broking best practice, in which Austbrokers Chief Broking Officer Keith McIvor urged brokers to constantly question whether their offer is good for the client.

“If you apply that test you are probably 99% of the way there,” he said.

Mr McIvor says although technology will be vital to broking, so will client engagement. “You must get out there and see what they don’t know and what they don’t understand, and add trusted advice.”