The Difference Between An Insurance Broker and An Agent
When you’re looking for insurance you may hear the terms Broker and Agent, and think they do the same thing. In a general sense, they can both help you find coverage for the person or object you want to protect, and both act as intermediaries between you and the insurance companies providing the policies. However there are some important distinctions that set them apart:
- An Agent is hired to represent one insurance company, and they can only sell that company’s products.
- A Broker has made agreements with several insurers so they can get multiple companies to quote and then match you with the product that suits you best.
- An Agent represents the insurance company to help sell their product to you.
- A Broker represents you and finds the product and company to best meet your needs.
One choice or many choices
Every insurance company has its own algorithms for rating risks, in other words each company has different nuances in how they figure out what to charge you based on your situation and history. What it means to you is that company A may give you a better rate and coverage than company B, but company B may give your neighbour a better offer than company A, because their algorithms are not the same. When dealing with one insurance company only, you have that one rate and coverage, take it or leave it. However if you are working with a Broker who will reach out to several companies on your behalf, they can pick and choose the option that gives you the right coverage at the right price.
Your time is valuable
In order to get a quote from any company you need to provide all the relevant information before you can proceed. If you’re working with an Agent and decide to get a second opinion from another Agent, you will have to start from the beginning and go through the same information-gathering process with the second Agent. All this takes time, and your time is valuable. This is where a Broker can offer tremendous value and time savings, as you only have to provide your information once, and we will do all the legwork to provide you with options from several companies.
Our scope is tremendous
Sometimes your needs change and a particular insurance company isn’t able to handle what you want to insure. For example, you decide to buy a motorcycle but your Agent doesn’t insure motorcycles, or maybe you want to buy Life Insurance or start a new business and need Business Insurance but your Agent is not equipped to provide any of those solutions. If you have all your eggs in one company basket, what are you going to do if you have a new egg that they can’t take? Rest assured that with Sukhu Insurance Brokers, we have multiple carriers that can be approached to assess any new risk so you can continue to have the peace of mind working with our familiar staff. If you’re a new customer, we try to take a holistic approach to evaluating your complete needs so we can find a solution that best suits your whole basket of eggs.