How to become an Independent Insurance Broker in UK

How to Become a Health Insurance Broker

By Rapid Quote UK If you’re seeking a career change or just starting out in the world of work, you might be exploring the options of a career as a private medical insurance broker.

A future as an insurance broker can be highly rewarding. Helping people to find the right private medical insurance and providing them with that added reassurance for years to come can bring great job satisfaction, not to mention generate a healthy income.

But where do you begin? Taking on any new job can be a daunting process, but we’ve answered some of the key questions you may have before you can begin your journey to a career in the insurance industry.

How do I know if I have the right key skills?

You’ll probably initially want to see if you have the right skills or qualities for the job. The ones listed below aren’t all essential, but just some suggestions to consider. You can of course develop your skill set as you become more experienced.

Core skills and qualities could include:     

An ability to use your initiative Strong sales skills and an ability to build rapport and relationships Good interpersonal and communication skills An altruistic outlook in wanting to help others A motivated and driven approach towards achieving your goals

What will the job involve?

Before you begin following your new career path, you’ll want to explore further info the day-to-day duties involved in the job. Here are some examples of the steps involved as an insurance broker: Initially meeting with clients and discussing their insurance needs and any potential concerns. For an example, for private medical insurance your client may have pre-existing medical conditions which they are cautious of.

You’ll need to gather enough quality information to enable you to begin researching and comparing quotes in order to get the best policy to meet your client’s needs.

You will then begin comparing various quotes, usually online, with the relevant insurers. Comparing quotes can be time consuming, which is why we introduced Rapid Quote to specifically compare private medical insurance across the major UK insurers.

This unique portal will compare private medical insurance quotes from 11 insurers in real time, to give you an accurate quote (and save you a great deal of time in the process).

Once you have found a shortlist of insurers who could potentially provide your client with a policy, you can begin researching these.

You would then be responsible for arranging the insurance cover on behalf of you clients after obtaining approval from them and submitting the details to the insurer. The policy will then be issued and you will then be able to offer your assistance in any further questions that your client may have.

Another aspect of the job involves renewing or changing existing insurance policies for your clients. This will need to be done with attention to detail, and again involves a conversation with your client to address any questions or concerns.

Compliance plays a big part in a career as an insurance broker, and you will need to ensure that the cover you have suggested, and the paperwork completed, meets with legal requirements.

From time to time clients will need to make a claim, and you will be the first port of call for them to ask how they go about doing so. You’ll need to be up to speed with the process and procedure.

It is important to keep your client records safe and sound and to abide

by GDPR regulation.

The GDPR sets out seven key principles:       

Lawfulness, fairness and transparency Purpose limitation Data minimization Accuracy Storage limitation Integrity and confidentiality (security) Accountability More information about GDPR can be found here.

How will I gather quotes and compare them?

Many insurers have online systems or portals which can be accessed by a login and password. You can contact the insurers for the details to

allow you to gain access. Our portal Rapid Quote can assist you in comparing private medical insurance quotes quickly and easily.

Do I need any specific qualifications or a degree?

In terms of qualifications, you’ll usually need GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), including English and Math, and A levels. Many businesses look to take on apprentices, or you could look to join an insurance broker’s graduate training scheme if offered.

Starting roles often begin at a junior level as an account handler or trainee broker, which is a great foot in the door and way to work your way up the ladder.

More information can be found here.

You’ll also usually need to study for qualifications from the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Do I need to know about compliance?

You also need authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to advise on, arrange or sell general insurance products. More information can be found here.

The insurance business is highly regulated, so you’ll need to be aware of the law and legislation and ensure that you abide by it at all times.

Keeping up to date Statutory regulation affects the entire UK insurance and financial services industry, but compliance is not an end in itself.

Courses run by organisations such as the CII (Chartered Insurance Institute) can help you to develop a greater knowledge of the effect and purpose of regulation and the steps required to satisfy the regulator’s demands and expectations. More information can be found here.

Deciding the next step in your career

If you’ve read through the above and you’re keen to progress your career into becoming a health insurance broker, you may want to delve a little deeper into the actual role and the challenges that insurance brokers face.

You can also talk to a career advisor to seek further information and guidance. The National Careers Service can help you with:   

CVs Skills health check reports Action plans



Course searches More details and contact information can be found here.

Here are our top tips to starting out as a health insurance professional including prospecting and selling the right products and services in an SME environment:

1. Selling takes time and effort Selling any form of insurance is a process which needs to be understood and followed. For clients, there can often be a long decision-making process which they will require a trusted adviser to support them with, and not be rushed into a decision.

You’ll need to understand client needs and anticipate questions along with building good rapport along the way. The decision is often a joint one and not hurried. Think of every client as long-term rather than short-term.

2. Ensure you pre-qualify leads Unfortunately, you will come across many time wasters, so it’s important that you qualify any leads that you may receive and identify if they are a warm or cold prospect.

Asking the right questions will help you to do this, and as your experience grows so will your ability to pre-qualify prospects and opportunities quicker.

3. Identify the pain points Everyone is different, and people have different priorities and values when it comes to choosing both an insurance broker and insurer. You will need to discover your client’s key priorities and needs early on to ensure you are both on the same page and can build empathy. Ask what their goals are, their challenges and of course, their budget.

4. Think about your questioning technique Building relationships is important, and that can be done through open questions as opposed to closed. An open question requires more than a yes or a no and will require your client to really think about their answer.

A closed question does not require as much thought or effort and will not give you a clear path to open more dialogue with them and build rapport. Make your conversations meaningful and well-thought out.

Some examples of open-ended questions may include;      

How did you find my explanation of that policy?

Which policy do you feel would best meet your needs?

Why did you feel that would be the best option?

How would you like me to progress this for you?

What sort of budget are you working to?

How long would you ideally like this process to take?

5. Don’t sound robotic or rehearsed It’s very easy to draft a script and read it out, but it won’t win you clients or business. Sounding rehearsed is an indicator that you are not truly interested in a client’s needs and won’t allow you to build a relationship with them.

Having notes and reminders is fine, but don’t read verbatim when you are fact finding about a client’s requirements.

6. Set yourself specific goals

Another way to avoid time wasters is to set yourself goals or an outcome that you would like to achieve from a telephone conversation or meeting. You will want every communication to be productive, and to ensure that you have actions and next steps in place.

Manage your time and be aware of your client’s time too. Ensure that you are meeting both your expectations in terms of what has been agreed.

7. Nurture your relationships Selling requires a strong set of communication skills along with investing time and effort into building rapport. Listening plays an integral part in being able to offer the right solution for your client, and through listening you will also build trust and respect.

Your goal is to become the ‘go to’ person for insurance help and information, and of course when the time comes to renew a policy.

8. Learn to handle rejection.

No doesn’t have to be a negative. Some prospects may be ‘time suckers’ and not be worth you investing your efforts into helping them.

Again, pre-qualifying and asking the right questions is imperative.

Asking for feedback is very important.

Why did they say no? It is a timing issue or have they received a more competitive quote elsewhere? Identify why they didn’t say yes and use their responses to improve your objection handling in the future.

9. Learn from your experience.

When you receive feedback or even criticism, always learn from it and think about how you can improve you technique. You may even want to seek advice from someone more experienced or qualified and ask them to offer you help and advice. You can also attend courses to improve specific areas such as sales techniques or NLP workshops which help to build confidence and learn rapport building skills.

We hope you found this a beneficial read in finding out more about a career as an insurance broker.

For a demonstration of our Rapid Quote private health insurance portal please visit – http://rapid-quote.co.uk/

Where can I find further information? https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/insurancebroker https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-dataprotection-regulation-gdpr https://www.gov.uk/authorisation-to-advise-on-or-arrange-generalinsurance https://www.allaboutcareers.com/careers/job-profile/insurancebroker