Buying insurance directly from an insurer means you are responsible for understanding the policy, exclusions and suitability yourself. A broker provides professional advice tailored to your business needs.

• Assess whether you fully understand your current insurance cover and exclusions.
• Consider using a qualified insurance broker for tailored advice and policy guidance.
• Ensure your insurance is designed specifically for your business activities, not just based on price.

Many online quote comparison platforms are not independent brokers – they often act on behalf of insurers.

• Check whether a provider is a true broker or simply an agent of the insurer.
• Read the organisation’s Financial Services Guide (FSG) to understand who they represent.
• Avoid relying solely on automated comparison quotes without professional advice.

Cheaper insurance can result in major coverage gaps that may leave your business exposed.

• Compare policies based on coverage quality, not just premiums.
• Review exclusions carefully before purchasing any policy.
• Ensure the policy adequately covers the actual risks within your business operations.

Small wording differences in policies can significantly impact claim outcomes.

The webinar highlighted faulty workmanship exclusions:

• Some policies exclude all related damage entirely
• Others may exclude only the faulty work itself but still cover consequential damage.

A broker acts on your behalf, not the insurer’s, particularly during claims.

• Choose a broker who understands your industry and business risks.
• Use your broker as an advocate during disputes or complex claims.
• Seek guidance from a broker when insurers challenge or limit claims.

Brokers often access insurers unavailable to the general public, including specialist and overseas markets.

• Explore broker-only insurance markets for more tailored options.
• Use the increased competition available through brokers to improve both pricing and coverage.
• Review your policies regularly to ensure they remain fit for purpose as your business evolves.

Welcome to our mini series today, I’m Daniel from Weber Insurance Services, proud partner of tradie wives. We’re going go through a few details about insurance today and hopefully uncover a few myths and talk to you about why it is you should use an insurance broker.

Before we get started, I’d like to cover off a little disclaimer.

What we’re talking about today is just general in nature, we are licensed to provide personal advice, so if you’d like personal advice from our team just reach out and we’d be more than happy to help.

Let’s be honest, insurance isn’t exactly the most exciting topic ever. Most people don’t really want to spend their time reading policy wordings or deciphering insurance jargon, But whether you’re protecting your business, your tools, your livelihood, choosing the right cover really matters. And today I want to talk to you about something we get asked about all the time, why should you use an insurance broker? So what we’ll do is compare the pathways because there’s a few different ways that you can obtain insurance coverage.

Clients either go direct straight to an insurance company or they engage a broker.

When you go direct, whether through an insurer or an online agent, you’re essentially doing it at your own risk.

You have to compare products, you have to read the fine print, you have to understand the cover and decide what’s right for your business.

When you use a broker you’re getting professional advice, somebody that’s experienced at reading policy wordings, understanding the jargon and making sure that the cover they select is fit for purpose for your business.

You can see there that we’ve got two different pathways side by side, the idea of a broker being that covering all the gaps, tailoring the insurance specifically to your business. Another thing to be really careful about are online aggregators or insurers and agents that propose or purport themselves to be brokers but are in fact agents of the insurers. Now we see this quite commonly with online quote comparison sites that might send up four or five different quotes once you punch in your details.

A lot of the time these aggregator sites are actually agents of the insurer which means that it’s no different to you going directly to that insurance company and obtaining cover yourself, they still don’t provide you any advice, they’re not able to consider your personal or business circumstances and making sure that the cover is right for you which essentially means you’re purchasing the cover entirely at your own risk.

We call that in the industry agents acting on behalf of the insurer is known as a binder arrangement. If you’re ever unsure or you want to understand the relationship between an agent or a broker or an insurer, all you need to do is read the financial services guide of that organisation. It’s mandatory to have that guide and to provide that disclosure information to you. We get this a lot of time as well, it’s okay well I’m using a broker, the the broker has to get paid, they’re going to get commission, they’re going to charge fees, it’s going to cost me more.

The reality is that’s simply not true because in the intermediated market or broking world there are a lot of insurance companies that don’t exist to service the direct market. So by going to a broker not only do you get the tailored advice and personalised service, you get access to a wider section of insurance companies both local and overseas which ultimately means more competition, better understanding of your business meaning that the products are more fit for purpose.

The end result you should be getting better cover that’s more suited to your business and in a lot of cases it’ll have a lower cost purely because it’s more fit for purpose, there’s more commercial. The other benefit being is these insurance companies don’t have to market their products to the world, they don’t need to put them on television, so the acquisition cost for clients is a lot lower. So the myth that insurance brokers cost you more is simply not true. I know we’ve touched on price premium and what it costs your business, but it’s not just about price. A broker’s benefit is understanding the coverage and making sure that what’s being presented to you and recommended is suitable for your business.

As with everything in a legal sense insurance policies are contracts, they are legally binding documents, they have terms and conditions just like every other business transaction.

Within these policy wordings exclusions are common, but it depends if the exclusions are normal for your business or if they pose a risk. There’s no point buying an insurance policy that excludes half of what you do or limits it in a way that is not financially viable for you to withstand such an event or claim.

So really, really small exclusions can make a massive difference to your business.

And a really good example is around in the trade industry is faulty workmanship. Now some insurance policies will exclude faulty workmanship in its entirety.

Whether the faulty workmanship causes a greater loss or damage, let’s say you’re a plumber, you install some pipe, the pipe’s faulty, it bursts, it causes a whole heap of water damage, some policies will exclude all of that altogether and they’ll say that is faulty workmanship.

Other insurance policies might exclude faulty workmanship but they might provide cover for resultant damage, meaning that if the pipe bursts the insurer won’t pay to fix the pipe but they’ll pay the cost to rectify all the damage from the water that flooded the building or the premises or whatever it was that happened. When you actually read a policy wording that will be just a few words that make all the difference in the event of a claim. So the real value of a broker, and not to understate this, a broker works for you, works for your business, it does not work or they do not work for the insurance company.

You’ll feel this most in the event of a claim.

Having somebody in your corner, an expert that understands the industry, they understand your business, and they understand how insurance works in general will make sure that you get the best possible outcome in the event of a claim.

You might not know what’s expected or standard or normal, but a broker does because a broker is dealing with many businesses and many insurance companies. They understand how things should go and when they don’t go to plan they’re able to step in and challenge. They’ll also have precedent with their other clients or other things that have happened in the industry that they’ll be able to point to and say why did we do X on this situation and Y on this situation.

Hold the insurance to account.

Like I said before, the broker works for you so they’re responsible for providing you with tailored advice.

Given that they’re considering the needs of your business, the coverage that you should get is better. That’s the general idea. You’re getting a more bespoke product with somebody that actually understands your business and ultimately what you’re paying for is protection in the event something goes wrong, they’re there to help you as well. So I hope this has really helped understand the value of insurance brokers and the different ways that you can purchase your insurance.

We’d love the opportunity to speak to you, sit down, have a meeting, have a Teams, a Zoom, a catch up by phone, whatever it may be, discuss your insurance needs, making sure that you’re getting the best quality advice and the most suitable products. Reach out to one of our lovely team today, thanks very much for your time.