Picking the perfect partner

As the insurance industry gets to grips with the changing regulatory regime and comes to terms with what this entails, insurers and brokers are starting to re-examine their relationships with assistance companies and the services they provide. Ian Bye reports

The use of assistance companies to provide services such as claims handling, loss assessment, and replacement or reinstatement capabilities to insurers and brokers is nothing new. In the current market, however, this relationship is coming under intense scrutiny.

Traditionally, such external services have been provided to companies on more or less a commodity basis. That said, increasing competition amongst insurers, combined with shareholder pressure, has meant that costs must be kept down