Rising PI claims boost premiums: DUAL

Specialist underwriting agency DUAL has reaffirmed its commitment to the Australian market but will be increasingly selective with the financial planners it provides professional indemnity cover to, as premiums across the advice industry rise.

DUAL national manager, Financial Lines, Jayson Symonds confirmed the group’s appetite for insuring financial planners had changed in the last six to 12 months, reflecting the current claims environment.

“We are looking at our accounts with a lot more scrutiny due to historic losses in the portfolio and across the industry as a whole,” he said. “We’re definitely restricting our appetite.”

DUAL specialises in small to medium-sized advice firms but does not provide cover to large dealer groups.

The group has around 10 to 15 per cent of the financial planning professional indemnity market, with a portfolio of around $4 million.

“We’re still an active participant but we are being much more selective because we want to partner with financial planning businesses for the long term. We are not an underwriter that jumps in and out of the market but like with any class (of insurance) we are constantly monitoring the economic and political environment and how that impacts on financial advice businesses.”

Symonds, who is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) PI Consultation Committee, said the cost of PI insurance for financial planners had been steadily rising following the Global Financial Crisis and the introduction of further regulation including the Future of Financial Advice reforms.

“There are pockets of the market where PI premiums are going up and that is a constant theme from all the insurers and brokers and advisers I speak to,” he said.