Brokers need to focus on own liability risks as well as clients’—German experts

Such actions make insurance brokers realise the dangers involved in being held liable for providing faulty advice. According to a manager from an insurance broker who did not want to be named: "The Mercer-Alaska case made the industry sit up and take notice." Faulty consultations and the resulting damage to assets is one of the largest risks for consulting companies such as insurance brokers, believes Kai-Frank Büchter, member of the management board at broker Aon in Germany. "Such major losses can bring a company to the brink of bankruptcy," he said. "These large risks can often no longer be insured." The broking industry has noticed that customers are much more prepared to sue brokers for consultancy mistakes than in the past. "The threshold for asking who is liable and claiming compensation is much lower then previously in the whole industry and is thus also creating greater risks for brokers," Klaus-Dieter Zühr, partner at Hamburg-based insurance broker Gossler, Gobert & Wolters, told Commercial Risk Europe.hideThe brokers have reacted by trying to reach liability limitation agreements with their clients. Aon has a standard limit of €5m. However, such limitations are restricted because they do not count when gross negligence has occurred. Then the broker is fully liable. Mr Zühr sees another challenge for commercial and industrial brokers which could also lead to a liability problem. "Brokers have the challenge that all customers have to be given the same good-quality advice the world over through their global networks," he said. The pre-requisite is that despite diverse cultures, network partners in the various countries should provide similar standards. "It is important that even if the business is not attractive that they provide the same quality service for customers," said Mr Zühr. In this respect, things could be improved, no doubt, he added. Mr Zühr demanded that brokers work to improve the quality of their networks, since medium-sized companies are increasingly more active internationally. Apart from consulting errors, data protection is also one of the largest liability risks that brokers have to deal with. They are constantly dealing with clients' confidential data. If such sensitive data is compromised, then brokers would not only be faced with enormous claims but the brokers' reputation would also be in danger. "Data protection is an enormous technical and organisational challenge for us," said Aon's Mr Büchter. To avoid such problems, brokers should place the major emphasis on prevention because insurance solutions do not play such an important role, Mr Büchter said. "Prevention is paramount because insurance would only cover the damage but not the loss of reputation," he said. Another hazard for consultants is the loss of specialised personnel because of contagious diseases, for example. "Both a pandemic or even food poisoning in the canteen can lead to a situation where a large number of employees are missing at the same time," Mr Büchter said. "We have to be prepared for such eventualities." Companies can try to prepare for such scenarios where several employees are sick simultaneously and try to set up a suitable emergency plan. However, Mr Zühr does not consider pandemics to be the real long-term problem but rather demographic changes. "In future, qualified specialised staff will be harder to find—if you don't want to end up in difficulty, you have to make plans now." Training is important as well as encouraging staff to remain with the company—those are the two most important factors to remain attractive as an employer, concluded Mr Zuhr.

Brokers need to focus on own liability risks as well as clients’—German experts

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