PB Week: Aviva's latest appointment gets personal

As the recently-appointed head of broker personal lines, one of the most common questions I am asked is why we are investing in the broker market when some are speculating that personal lines via brokers is dead, writes Sam Hudson, head of broker personal lines at Aviva.

Dead?" I ask. "Really?", because in my experience, despite all the changes in the personal lines market over the last decade, significant numbers still choose to buy their home and motor policies via their brokers. And as we exit the recession, I believe that these numbers will rise.

It was certainly a key theme on our stand at the Biba conference last week. I talked to a lot of personal lines brokers who were full of ideas and suggestions on where the market is going - and it certainly isn't