The Best Insurance Brokers in Australia | Top Insurance Brokers 2023
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Consummate professionals
The nation’s Top Brokers of 2023 have been recognised for delivering for their clients.
To determine this, they were ranked across a series of criteria including:
providing personalised service
understanding coverage needs
ensuring the best value for money
being proactive and suggesting additional coverage areas
Angat Sandhu, partner at McKinsey & Company in Sydney, explains what he thinks makes a Top Broker.
“Customer feedback is the ultimate acid test of a broker’s performance,” he says. “A broker’s ability to ensure their customers are protected with the right cover at the right price is paramount, as is the service and peace of mind they provide during claim time.”
He also lists criteria that stand out as separating the top-performing brokers:
recognising affordability of cover
identifying adequacy of coverage for emerging risks
being proactive at the time of the claim
Communication is often underestimated
Despite all being technically proficient, one skill stood out for 2023’s Top Insurance Brokers.
One winner, Kellie D’arcy, director of Australian Elite Insurance Brokers, explains her success.
She says, “I would put it down to my communication. My retention with my clients is really, really high. The only time I ever lose a client is if they’ve sold the business or they’re retired. Communication with the client is paramount, and if you continue to keep them updated so they know where they’re at, they’ll be with you for life.”
D’arcy’s prowess is evidenced by:
70% of new clients from word-of-mouth referrals
Excellence Award for Best Customer Service from an Individual Office in the Insurance Business Awards 2020
And feedback from her clients included the following:
Fellow winner NLT Insurance Brokers’ Nichole Frame also pinpoints the need to communicate effectively. However, she looks to build rapport as a way of creating that channel.
“Having a chat with someone and making a joke or talking about current affairs or the latest popular TV show is a good icebreaker, and all of a sudden it opens up the pathways that people are going to share more when you do start probing with the insurance questions,” she says. “Otherwise, insurance can feel quite a heavy topic because it’s so focused on loss and risk and what happens in the event that something goes wrong.”
It’s obvious that most calls to brokers either mean the client is unhappy with their current broker or wants to make a claim. Another of 2023’s winners, Zoe Evans, principal broker at Gallagher, seizes on this.
She says, “When a client contacts you about insurance, they’ve made the decision to talk about their insurance. They don’t want to wait three days for a phone call back; for them, it’s their whole business and livelihood, so it’s important to me too. Doing the simple things well is what makes the big difference.”
This is highlighted by client feedback such as the following:
“I’ve worked with a number of other brokers; however, Zoe stands out head and shoulders in her work ethic, tenacity in achieving the best result for her clients, willingness to take the time to explain and educate and recall of dozens of different issues at a moment’s notice.”
“I have found Zoe Evans to be the most proactive service provider I have ever dealt with to the point where, if Zoe were ever to leave, I would take my clients with her, as she is a valuable asset to what is a headache of an industry.”
“Zoe Evans is a consummate professional; we use Zoe in our own practice and also refer all our customers to her due to her incredible knowledge and unbelievable customer service.”
“When I first went out on my own in 2015, there were a few whispers that I didn’t think they would make it. That has been a massive driver to prove them wrong and show that I can do it”
Kellie D’arcyAustralian Elite Insurance Brokers
Versatility pays dividends
Being a good communicator requires intuition and attention to detail. Knowing which way to get the most from a client is an overlooked part of the process.
Evans says, “I’m quite good at reading and understanding people and knowing when to stop. I’ve got clients that don’t want to meet, and we do everything by email. Then I’ve got one client, from whom I make $100 a year. I’ll sit with them for three hours every year because they want to catch up on my stories. Everyone is important. Some people prefer to have a conversation face to face and others don’t.”
Treating customers differently is a touchstone for D’arcy. Over the course of her career, she has seen brokerages categorise clients, and this reflects the level of communication they receive.
She says, “They rate their clients according to a bronze, silver or gold standard, and then they allocate the service level that each person gets, but with me, each of my clients receives the same personalised service. They’ll always get me from the start, when they’re ready to place a cover, right through when they are about to have a claim.”
And D’arcy also echoes the need to understand that not all clients want the same things.
“You can pick up just the tone of a client’s voice and know whether they’ve had enough of you talking,” she says. “Right at the beginning, one of our questions that we ask is, ‘Do they want to be kept up to date on email or by phone?’”
There is also a harder side to good communication. Recordkeeping and using systems to track things that have been discussed are examples. It’s impossible for busy brokers to remember all of their conversations, so using technology makes their communication even more valuable.
Frame says, “There’s a lot of balls in the air there, so we do have systems and tools in place to help us manage that. We use CRM systems that network with our calendars to help, particularly if the client has, for example, a large fleet or a large business that needs to be reviewed every three months to make sure that their coverage is still covering all their moving parts.”
This is all grounded in Frame’s approach to making time to communicate effectively.
She says, “We spend a lot of time getting to know our clients and having a chat with them, unlike in some places where it’s trying to get the client off the phone quickly.
“We want to do that because it makes for a better relationship and means it’s more likely they are going to tell us what their worry points are. Once we start getting those conversations happening, it makes it so much easier to talk about additional policies and also ways to mitigate their risks.”
This is backed up by feedback from clients:
“Nikki helps me each year with my truck insurance. She always discusses marine transit and comprehensive insurance with me.”
“Having a broker willing to come to rural and remote areas is important to me. Not too many businesses will travel to my area.”
“I like that Nichole is in regional NSW. I like having someone close by who understands the region where I live.”
“I’m fortunate Gallagher recognised my skills and haven’t forced me to take a career path that would be the typical progression, which means I have the capacity to grow and keep doing what I love, which is broking and not be distracted by people management”
Zoe EvansGallagher
Learning and developing
On the surface, communication skills may appear to be something a broker takes for granted, but it’s not that simple. IB’s Top Insurance Brokers have made adjustments to add it to their toolkit.
D’arcy is transparent in her own assessment.
She says, “When I started in the industry, 16 odd years ago, my communication skills were pretty dismal. It’s definitely a skill that’s learned through time.”
Evans has refined some basic advice handed to her at age 18. It has served her well and enabled her to respond to clients instantly.
“I was told to do it now,” she says. “If you read an email or you’ve answered a phone call, and if you need to respond, then get it off your desk, as 90% of our job is reactionary. It means I’m ahead of the game on renewals and having meetings with clients. If you do the things you can control, if you do get a new business call at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon, you’ve got the capacity to drop things and go for it.”
Frame has also developed her style of communication and is open about what she relies on.
She says, “I’m an introvert. That’s my superpower, so I’m always trying to ask open-ended questions because it’s not a natural skill for me.”
However, with her many years of experience in the industry, Frame is adept at finding the right tone with clients, and it’s something she ensures new staff and younger colleagues appreciate by taking them to public settings to make pitches.
“They need to know the skills on how to build new relationships. So, we take them to an industrial site or to a shopping plaza and teach them how to say, ‘Hi’ and ‘Here’s my business card’,” she says. “We go out with them a few times over the course of several months, and they watch us do it, and then it’s their turn. We’ve gotten new business across the line by just saying hi and dropping off a card.”
“We always let our clients know that if anything happens, big or small, that they can come in straight away and have a chat so we can help them work it out”
Nichole FrameNLT Insurance Brokers
Aaron Macdonald
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Charles Elders
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Jacinta Sheather
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Lisa Carter
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Luke MacMahon
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Mia-Carla Tree
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Nichole Frame
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Rachel Sozzi
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Sonya Waugh
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Aon
