You can get insurance any time of year – sometimes even on weekends, depending on the type of insurance that you are after! Of course, it helps if you know what type of insurance you need.
Assuming that you know what type or types of insurance you need for your business, there’s a handful of ways to get insurance:
- Through an insurance broker
- Directly with an insurance company
- Through a bank
- Online
For business or ‘commercial’ insurance, getting insurance through a broker is perhaps the most widely used. This is because they can advise you of what type of insurance to get and when to get it, and because its their business to be able to access a wide variety of options. Although, as we have previously reported variety may just come in the form of a different logo or corporate identity. So you should ask your broker to explain clearly what the differences are between different products.
It so happens that by law an insurance broker cannot advise you to purchase an insurance product if it does not cover your needs. In addition, a broker can help ease the burden of dealing directly with a large insurance company if you do have a claim – particularly if the insurance company intends to deny your claim!
Getting insurance directly with an insurance company or through a bank is generally the same process – speak to a ‘sales representative’ in their call centre, let them walk you through the cover and in some instances even get some (relatively) impartial advice. Of course, going direct means that you potentially save the 10% -15% commission that the insurer will pay the broker.
Getting a business insurance quote online is relatively difficult, as insurance companies in Australia simply do not provide many options. In most instances, online quotes are provided by insurance brokers or other distributors acting as agents of the insurance company. For example, Newsagents can be covered through a broker in Queensland who distributes business insurance on his website on behalf of an insurance company. In this instance, the broker still receives commission without the obligatory advice. So in short, a direct online business insurance company does not exist in Australia.
Next: Types of insurance
Back: Index
