One of the most critical and often most challenging decisions for insurance brokers is choosing which insurers to place business with. Beyond price and product, brokers must weigh factors such as claims performance, financial strength, service quality and long-term reliability.
The good news is that this inaugural report from Insurance DataLab shows how the leading insurers are delivering consistently across claims, complaints, underwriting and solvency. This is particularly important as placement decisions become more evidence driven.
Under Consumer Duty and increasing regulatory scrutiny, brokers must be able to demonstrate good outcomes and justify insurer selection with clear and defensible data.
At its core, this report is designed to support smarter placement decisions.
Underwriting performance insights help brokers understand how well insurers are pricing and managing risk. Solvency data provides reassurance around financial resilience, which remains strong across the market overall, though this report highlights that variation between insurers is significant and increasingly relevant when assessing long-term reliability.
Claims and complaints data, meanwhile, offer a more direct view of customer outcomes.
As highlighted in this report, claims experience is a key driver of trust and placement decisions. However, this report also reveals a clear divide in claims outcomes across the market. Complaints data further underlines ongoing friction, with claims continuing to drive the majority of complaints and a significant proportion being upheld, indicating persistent issues in delivery.
Importantly, this report does not just highlight top performers. It also provides a market-wide view, showing that while headline results appear broadly positive, performance varies materially between insurers and across different business lines.
This reinforces the need for brokers to look beyond averages and assess performance at a more granular level.
Managing relationships in a demanding market
The timing of this report is significant. Brokers and insurers alike are operating in a more demanding environment, characterised by tighter margins, increasing regulation and rising customer expectations, alongside external pressures such as claims inflation and evolving risk profiles.
For brokers, this means greater scrutiny over the quality of advice and the suitability of insurer recommendations. For insurers, it means a stronger focus on receiving well-presented, well-understood risks that align with their underwriting appetite.
As this report highlights, success increasingly depends on delivering consistent, evidence-backed performance across the full policy lifecycle.
This is where better data becomes a powerful enabler. When brokers have clearer insight into insurer performance and insurers have greater visibility of the risks being presented, relationships become more aligned and more productive.
Reducing unnecessary referrals is a good example. When brokers understand an insurer’s appetite and performance profile, they are better able to place business that fits first time. This leads to faster quote turnaround, improved conversion rates and a more efficient experience for clients.
Tech strengthens broker and insurer alignment
Data alone, however, is not enough. Its real value is unlocked when combined with technology that enables brokers to act on those insights quickly and consistently.
Modern broker platforms are increasingly designed to support this kind of data-led decision-making. By integrating insurer appetite, performance indicators and AI-supported real-time pricing capabilities, brokers can match risks more effectively and deliver faster, more accurate quotes. This aligns with broader developments across the market, to accelerate investment in digital capabilities. It certainly reflects how SSP has and is continuing to evolve, as we explore selected M&A activity to help boost innovation in the market.
We have also made a number of key enhancements to our solutions including expanded schemes access and AI-driven pricing, aimed at helping brokers place business more efficiently and align more closely with insurer expectations.
Fundamentally, technology is no longer just about operational efficiency, it is becoming central to how brokers and insurers collaborate, particularly as placement becomes more data-driven and outcomes more closely scrutinised.
Yet still there is one more vital element brokers must consider when leveraging data and software platforms. People. People who understand broking, people who behave like partners, not just vendors. Trust and accessibility matter as much as tech.
The insights from this report are particularly valuable in the context of schemes and delegated authority business. Here, alignment between broker and insurer is even more critical, with success dependent on consistently delivering risks that meet agreed underwriting criteria.
As this report indicates, the market is improving overall, but outcomes are becoming increasingly polarised. This makes it even more important for brokers to identify insurers that can deliver consistent performance within specific segments.
By combining these insights with technology that supports accurate risk presentation, brokers can build more effective and sustainable schemes. This not only improves profitability but also strengthens long term partnerships with insurers.
A more transparent future
Ultimately, SSP is delighted to support this report from Insurance DataLab. It represents a move towards greater transparency in the insurance market.
For brokers, it provides a practical tool to support more informed decision-making, stronger insurer relationships and better client outcomes. For insurers, it creates an environment where performance is more visible and where those delivering consistent, high-quality outcomes can stand out.
As the market continues to evolve, the combination of high-quality data and enabling technology will play an increasingly important role. Brokers who embrace this approach will be better positioned to navigate complexity, deliver value to clients and build resilient, high-performing insurer partnerships.
In a market where outcomes are increasingly scrutinised and consistency defines success, having the right insights at the right time could make all the difference.
Download The Insurer Performance and Conduct Report
How do insurers really perform when it matters most?
Created in association with BIBA and sponsored by SSP, the inaugural Insurer Performance and Conduct Report introduces our new Insurer Performance Index, combining claims, complaints, solvency and underwriting performance into a single, comparable view of insurer performance.
The report also includes findings from our Commercial Lines Claims Pulse survey, based on more than 800 real-world claims experiences, providing unique insight into how claims outcomes influence broker trust and placement decisions.
Download your free copy today to discover the insurers delivering the strongest all-round performance and what the findings mean for brokers, insurers and customers.