Insurance brokerage
Below, the types of activities characterising insurance brokerage.
Placement activities:
- Pre-contractual assistance (offering quotations, explaining characteristics of each insurance policy);
- Signing of the insurance proposal (signing contracts, defining the investment strategy).
After-sale activities:
- Change of the investment strategy and/or custodian bank;
- Pledge request;
- Transfer of the policy contractor;
- Additional payment;
- Partial or total surrended (by disinvest or death of the insured);
- Assistance provided to beneficiaries to collect the insurance benefit upon occurrence of the insured death.
According to the Art. 119 of the CAP ("Codice Assicurazioni Private", the Italian Private Insurance Code of Laws), only the Broker is authorized to distribute "non-standardised contracts", while Banks and other brokerage firms, such as S.I.M.s, can carry out, by law, only brokerage activities of so-called "standardised contracts".
The Broker, in carrying out the brokerage activity as required by primary (the aforementioned Private Insurance Code) and secondary (IVASS regulations) regulations, offers important protections and guarantees to the client. Regarding this, with the protection of the client in mind, the law requires the Broker to sign a professional liability policy, whose characteristics are dictated by law. Furthermore, the Broker is the only intermediary that offers an additional level of guarantee to the client, thanks to the support of a guarantee fund.
The Broker has also a key role for banks, because can prevent issues related to the abuse of insurance brokerage.