| IT support for insurance brokers covers the systems a broking and advice business runs on: the client register, the renewal diary, the reconciliation of premium and commission money, and the licence records an adviser has to be able to produce. It gets judged on custody, because those records outlive the adviser who built them. |
An adviser hands in her notice on a Tuesday and works out her month. She has been with the firm eleven years and looks after around 340 clients.
The handover meeting on her last Friday produces a spreadsheet of renewal dates, a list of clients she thinks are due before Christmas, and an offer to take questions.
Nine weeks later a client rings about a policy the firm has no record of placing. The commission had been arriving all year, and nobody could say who had reviewed the cover at the last renewal.
A handover like that has a price, and so does the ordinary week that produced it.
The figures below are illustrative. Take a nine-person broking and advice firm in Christchurch, six of them advisers, writing fire and general business alongside a life and health book.
Its administrators spend about six hours a week rebuilding information the firm already holds somewhere: a renewal date in one adviser’s calendar, a policy schedule in a personal inbox, an identity document sighted and then filed nowhere. At $45 an hour across forty-eight working weeks, that is $12,960 a year.
The resignation cost more, and it only cost it once. Reconstructing that adviser’s client files, confirming what had been placed and rebuilding a renewal list took an outside hand and about $7,500.
Neither number is about advice quality or compliance culture. Privilege, client confidentiality and the wider regulatory frame sit in our guide for professional services firms, which covers advisers and brokers alongside accountants. This one stays on the register, the renewal diary and the reconciliation, which an owner can check without help.
Good IT support for insurance brokers keeps all three where the firm can reach them without ringing the person who left.
What Does IT Support for Insurance Brokers Cover?
IT support for insurance brokers covers six things that behave differently from the systems in a general office:
- The client register, holding who the client is and what has been recommended
- The renewal diary, which decides what the firm does next and when
- The money record: premiums received, commissions earned and the reconciliation between them
- The identity and advice records a licence requires on request
- The correspondence showing what was discussed before a policy was placed
- The systems the firm does not own: insurer portals, quoting platforms and underwriting agency sites
Most of a broking firm’s operating risk sits in the gap between the first two. A renewal date nobody can tie to a policy schedule and a current premium becomes an adviser ringing a client without knowing what they pay.
What is a broker management system?
A broker management system, sometimes sold as insurance broker software and usually shortened to BMS, holds clients, policies, renewals, claims and the broking account in one place, so a book can move from one adviser to another without being rebuilt first. JAVLN Platform is built for the Australian and New Zealand market specifically.
Advice firms on the risk and mortgage side run different software. Trail, AdviserDesk, Adviser CRM and The Adviser Platform are built for New Zealand advisers, and MyCRM comes with membership of the NZFSG adviser group.
Why does the same client exist in four places?
Because each was brought in to solve one problem and none was ever made the master. The client sits in the broker management system, in an adviser’s Outlook contacts, on an insurer portal under a policy number, and in the accounting file as a debtor.
When those four disagree, the firm finds out from the client. Decide which one is authoritative and tell the team.
How Should a Broking Firm Manage Its Renewal Diary?
Generate the renewal diary from the policy records, in one system every adviser writes to, so no renewal depends on somebody remembering it. A diary kept in personal calendars is invisible to everyone else, including whoever takes over the book.
A renewal diary is only usable by someone who did not build it if every entry carries its policy, premium and insurer, stays visible to the whole firm, and moves when the policy moves.
Renewal volume is uneven. Commercial books often cluster around 30 June and 31 December, and a firm that discovers its December load in December is doing the work twice.
How far ahead should renewals be worked?
Work commercial business six weeks ahead and domestic four, counted back from the renewal date. A ninety-day view lets an owner see the December cluster in September and staff it.
What should happen when a renewal is missed?
It should surface the day after it was due, to somebody other than the adviser responsible. Set a weekly exception report listing renewals that passed with no outcome recorded, and read it.
Missed renewals that nobody catches surface at claim time, in front of the client.
Who Holds the Client Register When an Adviser Resigns?
Whoever the records were kept by. If the client register lives in a firm system the firm holds it, and if it lives in an adviser’s inbox and spreadsheet the adviser holds it in every practical sense, whatever the employment agreement says.
There is a test for this and it takes ten minutes. Pick an adviser, imagine they resign this afternoon, and ask what the firm could produce on Monday about their forty largest clients.
The answer usually comes back in pieces. Some of it is in the broker management system and current, some is eighteen months stale, and the rest was never in a firm system at all.
What should be in the firm’s system before an adviser leaves?
Five things, none of them unreasonable to ask for on an ordinary Wednesday:
- Client contact details and the legal entity behind them
- Every policy with its insurer, cover, sum insured and renewal date
- The advice given and the reason it was given
- The identity evidence gathered when the client was onboarded
- The correspondence explaining any decision a stranger would query
Ticking all five turns a handover into a morning of work.
Does a restraint of trade protect the client register?
Only partly, and only against the adviser. A restraint governs what a departing adviser may do next, and it does nothing to put a policy schedule into a file that never had one.
Ask an employment lawyer about the restraint. Ask an IT provider why the record was never in the firm’s system, because that half is cheaper to fix.
What Records Does a Licensed Financial Advice Provider Have to Keep?
A licensed financial advice provider, shortened to FAP, has to create and keep adequate records of its financial advice service for at least seven years. The Financial Markets Authority’s standard conditions for full FAP licences set that period.
Licensing began in March 2021, when the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act 2019 replaced the Financial Advisers Act 2008 and its Authorised and Registered Financial Adviser designations.
The clock runs from the latest of four dates, and one of them is the day the product itself ends. A life policy written for a thirty-five-year-old can still be in force when she is sixty-five, and the seven years starts after that.
The same standard conditions carry an information technology obligation that gets far less attention. A licence holder must keep a business continuity plan, and must tell the FMA within ten working days of any event that materially affects the information security of its critical technology systems.
The Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services adds a second duty on the same ground. It requires a provider to protect client information against loss and against unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure.
The FMA noted in 2021 that many of the newly licensed, including small and single-adviser businesses, had not previously been subject to compliance obligations for cybersecurity. It has since made cyber resilience a focus of its monitoring reviews.
Outsourcing does not move that obligation. Where a firm relies on an outside provider for a system its advice service needs, the licence holder has to be satisfied the provider can meet the standard and can hand the records back.
How long do anti-money laundering records have to be kept?
For a firm that is a reporting entity under the anti-money laundering rules, identity and verification records have to be kept for at least five years after the business relationship ends. Section 50 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 sets that period.
That Act replaced the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 1996. Longer-serving advisers still use the old name.
Customer due diligence, or CDD, produces those records. The evidence has to stay attached to the client, because a folder filed by date cannot answer a question asked about a person.
Five years after the relationship ends depends on knowing when it ended. Many firms hold no field for that.
How should a firm store its advice records?
In a system that keeps each record attached to the client and the policy, with a retention date the software can work out. A request might arrive as an email naming one client and one date, and the firm has ten working days.
A folder tree named by year gets there eventually, with enough searching. Which records have to be kept, and for how long, is set out in our guide to a data retention policy.
For a broking firm the clock runs off events, so the software has to hold the end of the product and the end of the relationship.
How Do Insurance Brokers Reconcile Premium and Commission Money?
By matching what the insurer says was charged against what the client has paid and what the broking account holds today. Those three seldom agree on the first pass.
Broker money sits under its own statute. Section 14 of the Insurance Intermediaries Act 1994 requires every broker to maintain an insurance broking client account with a financial institution in New Zealand, and requires money received from an insured for an insurer to be paid into it immediately.
The reconciliation problem rarely starts at the bank. It starts with one policy carrying three reference numbers across the insurer statement, the broker management system and the accounting file.
Commission adds a second layer. A renewal placed and never confirmed back into the system produces a statement line nobody can explain, and those get written off until somebody adds up the year.
This work resembles an accounting practice more than an ordinary office, and the equivalent ground for accountants is covered separately. A broking firm differs in holding money belonging to the client on one side and the insurer on the other.
| What the firm should be able to produce | Where it lives in many firms | What it costs when nobody can produce it |
|---|---|---|
| Every policy a departing adviser held, with its renewal date | That adviser’s calendar and inbox | Renewals lapse without anyone noticing and the commission stops |
| Identity evidence for a client onboarded in 2021 | A scanned folder named by month | Hours of searching, and an answer that arrives late |
| The advice record behind a declined claim | An adviser’s memory and a partial email chain | The firm carries a complaint it cannot answer with a document |
| This month’s commission statement matched to policies | A spreadsheet one person maintains | Unexplained lines get written off |
| The premium a client paid last Thursday | The broking account and the insurer portal | The reconciliation runs late and the insurer chases |
Should the accounting system or the broker management system be the master?
The broker management system, for anything describing a client or a policy. The accounting file should receive that information and report on it, and two systems edited independently produce a difference somebody explains every month.
Brokers call the money side trust accounting, and the software market uses the same word for it.
What Happens to Client Files When a Broking Firm Changes Software?
They arrive in whatever the export produces, and nothing beyond it. A migration moves what the old system gives up in structured form, and anything held as an attachment or a loose note has to be moved by hand.
Ask for the export terms before signing. Put it in writing: on the day we leave, what formats do we receive, does that include the documents and notes attached to each client, and how long do we have to collect it.
Firms that have been through one migration describe the same surprise. The client and policy data arrived cleanly, and twelve years of correspondence arrived as a folder of files with system-generated names and no link to a client.
How should a firm plan a system change?
Run the change across one full renewal cycle, so every seasonal quirk gets exercised while the old system is still there. Map the fields first, agree what will be left behind, and keep a read-only copy for the retention period.
That read-only copy looks like an unnecessary line on a budget until the first request arrives for something from 2019.
Who asks a broking firm about its own security?
Corporate clients and insurers do, and more of them every year. Our guide to answering a client security questionnaire covers what those forms ask, and the answer is worth keeping where the next request finds it.
How Much Does IT Support for Insurance Brokers Cost?
For the illustrative nine-person firm above, better IT support for insurance brokers runs about $7,200 a year, set against the $12,960 a year currently spent rebuilding information the firm already holds. The net is around $5,760 a year of recurring saving, and no lapsed renewal has been counted yet.
The recurring side buys managed support for staff and devices, backup with a tested restore, access control that closes a departing adviser’s accounts the same day, and the broker management system run as a firm asset.
The one-off side is a separate number and should stay separate. Getting the client register, the renewal diary and the document history into one place for a firm this size runs around $5,400, against the $7,500 that single resignation cost to unpick.
Both figures move with the size of the book. The recurring saving covers the recurring cost inside the first year, and the one-off spend is smaller than one bad handover.
What does the number look like for a two-adviser firm?
The numbers are smaller on both sides, and harder to justify on time saved alone. A two-adviser business will not lose six hours a week to record chasing, and it carries the same seven-year obligation and the same problem when one of the two leaves.
At that size the money goes on one system holding clients and policies, backup, and access that closes on the last day.
Where Should an Insurance Broking Firm Start With Its IT?
Start with the resignation test, because it finds the gaps faster than an audit. Then work through six steps in order:
- Pick one adviser and list what the firm could produce about their clients on Monday if they resigned today.
- Name one system as the register of record for clients and policies.
- Move the renewal diary out of personal calendars and generate it from the policy records.
- Set a weekly exception report on renewals that passed with no outcome recorded.
- Check the retention clock: seven years for advice records, five years past the end of the relationship for identity records.
- Get the exit terms in writing for every system holding client data, including who receives the attachments.
None of them needs a new platform. Most of IT for insurance brokers is a question of where information already lives, and the last step is a clause in a contract the firm has already signed.
The adviser at the top of this post gave a month’s notice, which was plenty. Her firm had no system that could tell her what she was handing over.
Find Out What Your Firm Could Produce on Monday
Exodesk has supported South Island businesses since 1989 and works with clients across Canterbury, Otago and Southland from offices in Christchurch and Dunedin. Our managed IT team works on IT support for insurance brokers and advice firms. We look at where the client register lives today, whether the renewal diary survives a resignation, and whether the records a licence asks for could be produced inside ten working days.
Contact us today to discuss how we can help your business or connect with us on LinkedIn to stay updated with more insights.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is IT support for insurance brokers and advisers?
The phrase describes every system a broking or advice practice depends on, from the client list and the dates its policies fall due to the money moving between insurer and insured and the evidence a licence requires. Those files differ from ordinary office records in one respect. They have to survive both the departure of the adviser who made them and the retirement of the software that held them.
Does a financial adviser own their client book?
No. The firm holds the client relationship as a matter of contract, and what changes hands when an adviser leaves is goodwill and the expectation that clients will stay. In practice the firm only holds what its own systems recorded, so where policy schedules and renewal dates lived in an adviser’s inbox the firm has to rebuild them. Make one firm system the register of record while everybody is still employed.
How long do adviser records have to be kept in New Zealand?
Licensed financial advice providers must keep adequate records of their advice service for at least seven years, measured from the latest of several dates including the end of the life of the product advised on. Where anti-money laundering obligations apply, identity and verification records must be kept for at least five years after the business relationship ends.
Do small broking firms need a broker management system?
Yes, once a firm holds more policies than one person can carry in their head. The return shows up first on renewals and reconciliation, and only later on reporting.
Can an insurance broking firm run on spreadsheets and email?
It can run, and it will struggle in a few predictable places. A resignation takes the renewal diary with it. A licence or audit request has to be answered within ten working days. And a declined claim sends the firm looking for an advice record from four years ago.
What happens to a firm’s records if its software vendor stops trading?
The obligation to produce those records stays with the firm, so the answer has to be arranged in advance. Ask what the export contains, what format it arrives in, and whether attached documents come with it, then get the answer into the contract before signing.
What is the difference between a broker management system and an accounting system?
A broker management system holds clients, policies, renewals and claims, and it is the natural register of record for anything describing cover. An accounting system holds the ledger and produces the financial reporting. Problems start when both are edited independently and the same policy carries a different reference number in each.
What is the first thing a broking firm should spend money on?
Getting the client register and the renewal diary into one system that every adviser writes to. Everything else on the list gets easier once those two sit in a single place.
How do we stop renewals being missed?
Generate the renewal diary from the policy records so it cannot depend on memory, then run a weekly exception report on renewals that passed with no outcome recorded. Give that report a named owner who is not the adviser being reported on.
Does Exodesk work with insurance brokers in Christchurch and Dunedin?
Yes. Exodesk works with broking and advice firms across Canterbury, Otago and Southland from offices in Christchurch and Dunedin, and has supported South Island businesses since 1989.
What should we ask a software vendor before we sign?
Get the answers in writing before signing. What does the export contain on the day we leave, and in what format. Does it include the documents and notes attached to each client. How long do we have to collect it, and what does the vendor do with our data afterwards.
What could your firm produce if an adviser resigned today?
The client register, the renewal diary and the licence records all sit in systems somebody chose years ago, and most firms have never tested what they could produce without the adviser who built them. An IT assessment checks where those records actually live, and who can still reach them, alongside the rest of your setup.
Or read more about our managed IT services.
