Governments and legislators don’t understand the value insurance brokers bring to insurance, and the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) fights every day to ensure brokers’ views are heard, says NIBA President Graham Stevens.

Opening the NIBA Convention in Melbourne yesterday, he told delegates the benefits NIBA has brought to general insurance brokers amount to “tens of thousands of dollars” by ensuring legislation aimed at life insurance and investment intermediaries does not apply to them.

He says legislators see insurance brokers as “an easy target” and “continue to beat their chests about what they are going to do to bring insurance brokers into line”.

“The problem we face as an industry is that governments, and the people that run them, do not understand or value what you do.

“NIBA has fought and has been successful in negotiating outcomes for the benefit of brokers in [a number of] challenges which, if not won, would have had huge operational and financial consequences for us, the brokers.”

Among the challenges successfully negotiated for brokers was the Future of Financial Advice reforms, where brokers’ commissions were not affected, and funding of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which could have seen annual licence fees for brokers rising “from around $800 to as high as $11,000”.

“On top of all of these issues, due to the poor performance of financial advisers [brokers] faced the prospect of having to complete a university degree and serve a graduate year prior to being able to deal with clients,” Mr Stevens said.

“This was the largest single issue facing brokers in years. We were in a fight to prove… that brokers were not part of what the financial planners had been up to and that there were no concerns at all being expressed about the quality of advice from and performance of insurance brokers.”

Following lengthy negotiations with the Government, legislation was released that “carved brokers out of the need to obtain university degrees”.

“If NIBA had not been successful, brokerages would have had to fund the cost of their staff to do a university degree to be able to deal with clients,” Mr Stevens said. “This cost would have been a staggering $28,000, plus the cost of time spent away from the office to actually do the study – at least one day a week for three years.

Mr Stevens says the takeover of NIBA College by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance “has led to a very strong ongoing working relationship between the two organisations”.

He says any broker questioning the value of NIBA should be directed to “speak to me or one of my fellow board members”.

“We would welcome the opportunity to refresh anyone’s memories of what NIBA has achieved in the past and the ongoing work that still has to be done.