What are the Benefits of Using Illinois Insurance Brokers?
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What are the Benefits of Using Illinois Insurance Brokers?
Benefits of Using Illinois Insurance Brokers
If you own a business in Illinois and are looking to purchase insurance, it can be confusing to figure out which company to use. To add to that, there’s the further option of getting your insurance directly from the insurance company or through a broker.
You might think buying direct is a better deal for you, but is that really true? You’d be surprised to know it usually isn’t.
Insuring a business is an important step that should be undertaken with the assistance of a professional. It’s definitely a good idea to hire a broker for your business insurance needs. If you’re interested in finding out why going direct isn’t the better deal, read on to find out the advantages of using Illinois insurance brokers.
Why Businesses Don’t Use Insurance Brokers
There’s a lot of advertising from insurers out there, all encouraging people to “go direct” when they are looking for coverage. Add to this people’s natural suspicion of any so-called middle man, and it’s easy to default to buying insurance direct from a company and not using Illinois insurance brokers.
Most people don’t know that brokers are independent professionals who work with selected insurers, which enables them to secure exclusive prices. Since they aren’t bound to a particular company, among the many advantages is the fact that they can shop around multiple companies to find the best fit for their clients.
What’s Important to Businesses
In order to analyze which option is better, let’s break down what is actually important to a small businessperson who’s looking for insurance. The most important factors can be summed up as being cost, ease, speed, and peace of mind that they get the right coverage.
How do brokers compare in these four areas? Let’s find out.
Cost of Insurance
Would it blow your mind to hear brokers actually get better prices? This seems to be because insurers provide different, more advantageous rates to brokers, so that premiums are lower. They get a commission from the insurance provider for selling their products, so they don’t need to gouge you on price. This means in the number one area business owners care about, brokers come out on top.
Ease of Getting Insured
Where brokers shine is in their personalized service. Human contact makes all the difference here. If you request a quote from Illinois insurance brokers, you usually get a real person who will call or email you back. You get the same person or company through the life of your policy, saving time and effort that would have been spent on reading the fine print of offers from multiple different insurers.
If you’re a busy business owner, it makes sense to simplify the process by allowing a broker to do the shopping around and handling the details of coverage for you.
Speed of Responses
For a business owner, time is money. The time spent waiting on a company to adjust a quote is frustrating. If you deal with a direct insurer they can be slow to adjust, especially if the policy is an older one.
Getting information, even a minor query, can be another point of frustration. We all know what it’s like to call a large call center. Even for a minor query this can be a painful and frustrating experience. Staff may be poorly trained and have limited insurance knowledge, which adds up to even more time on the phone.
Have you insured directly with an insurance company? Then it’s more than likely you have one of these calls to look forward to. On the other hand, if you use a broker, it’s been shown that in the mid to long term they manage policies more efficiently and speedily than insurance companies.
Peace of Mind
Again, the most stressful part of a policy life cycle is when we have to call our insurance company to report an incident. If you own a shop and experience a break-in, for example, the stress of losing the product is almost equal to the pain of filling out the necessary paperwork. Making a claim is a process that is notorious for moving slowly, and many insurance companies have not taken advantage of digital claims services.
However, many small business owners are often unaware that brokers can manage the entire claims process. Not only can a broker help you by explaining what happens next, he/she can provide updates along the way so you know exactly what to expect.
Having a supportive expert on your side makes the process easier and gives you something priceless: peace of mind so you can get back to running your business.
Non-Standard Policies
If you want a non-standard policy and you call an insurer direct, you’re on your own. The average direct insurance service is geared towards covering low-risk policies. This means if you have a unique situation or business direct insuring isn’t for you. Niche insurance requirements require a specialist provider, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
Brokers Have Specialist Knowledge
An insurance broker is more efficient at checking policies for details than consumers can be, no matter how experienced they are. A cost comparison site is tempting to use, but can it check that your policy includes workers’ compensation, business life, or specialty products insurance?
Brokers also educate their customers, answering questions and explaining different types of coverage in a way that’s easy to understand. Confused by all that insurance jargon? A broker will sort it out for you.
Why You Should Choose Illinois Insurance Brokers
The bottom line is that brokers are professionals who deal with insurance every day. Insurance is a complicated area and brokers are experts who make it their job to find the best cover, at the best price, for you.
If you’d like to talk about business insurance options with one of the best Illinois insurance brokers for small businesses, get in touch today.
