Austbrokers and IBNA have celebrated the success of their six-year-old joint venture relationship, with their leaders saying the time is right to demonstrate the strength of their partnership and what it offers brokers.

IBNA Chairman Gary Gribbin and Austbrokers CEO Mark Searles told the opening session of the A&I Member Services (AIMS) conference in Honolulu last week that the unity achieved through the joint venture should be considered by brokers looking at their options. 

“There has never been a better time to really anticipate the future and ensure we face it together,” Mr Gribbin told the opening session of the three-day conference, which he opened with Mr Searles.

More than 520 AIMS members and insurance industry representatives attended the conference.

Mr Searles says the combination of his company as Australia’s leading equity-based insurance broking network and IBNA as the leading non-equity membership network “provides real, tangible benefits to broking firms that want either an equity partnership or a non-equity membership relationship”.

“We provide the best affiliation options,” he said.

In what could be seen as a direct appeal to members of Steadfast looking at alternatives to being involved in the broker group’s forthcoming public listing, Mr Gribbin says the AIMS partners are “working closer than we have ever done before”.

“We want our joint strength in the market to ensure we are the respective ‘games in town’ for those broking firms seeking equity relationships and those wanting to retain their independence.

“One of my great joys in this business is the collegiality of networks. There’s always someone you can call.”

Commenting on Austbrokers members’ enthusiasm for continued growth, he says that same “exuberance” also drives IBNA members.

He says he and Mr Searles have spent a lot of time developing “partnership thinking”, which has included discussions on future strategic directions.

“We have excellent reasons for our sense of renewed optimism as partners,” Mr Gribbin said. “Of course, that means working together or acting independently as competitors, as we must do.

“We all know that there is a game change going on in the business of insurance and the practice of insurance broking,” Mr Searles added.

“This is a game we are best positioned to win.”