Golf under fire

There is no doubt that it is a great British trait to indulge in schadenfreude - or, in layman's terms, a malicious satisfaction in the misfortune of others - and certainly, from our side of the pond, we have perhaps watched events of the past two weeks with a certain smugness.

Events can move very quickly and, clearly, the immediate top management changes at Marsh have created an environment whereby a dialogue with Spitzer can take place.

As far as the UK is concerned, the Financial Services Authority is of course alerted to the happenings in the US. The global players will no doubt be thinking globally and acting locally but what - as you ask - is likely to change in UK provincial broking terms?

FSA rules already provide for commission disclosure if requested by commercial clients, and the law of agency also has a bearing.

It may be that the FSA acts further in terms of commission disclosure, but it really is too early to say at this stage.

Is it not the fact that we have glibly gone on accepting all sorts of benefit from insurers and is it not the courts that might eventually have to decide whether practitioners, as agents of the insured, might have been accepting more than is legal in that role.

Such favours include golf days, hospitality trips to see your favourite premiership team in action, trips abroad or perhaps even some subsidised compliance advice.

Is it not the case that such favours are not available in equal measure to every broker in the land and, as such, must be some kind of benefit for introducing business to the carrier providing the extras to the commission you enjoy?

As a broker for many years, I enjoyed many such trips, even having the opportunity to play football at Wembley, as well as golf at The Belfry.

Our colleagues in the life and pensions side of the business saw these invitations dry up very quickly once they became regulated, as these were seen as potential 'inducements'.

Of course, there may be a dividing line between a benefit or an inducement and market research on the part of the insurer, but one interesting point about agency law would seem to be that it is the disclosure of the benefit or inducement to the principal and not the enjoying of it that is the issue.