| Copyright: | Business Wire |
| Source: | Business Wire |
| Wordcount: | unknown |
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH), the global insurance broker, issued
the following statement today in immediate response to the announcement
by Aon Corporation that it would resume accepting contingent commissions
“where appropriate and legally permissible”:
With Aon retreating to a troublesome and ambiguous position on
contingent commissions, Willis now stands as the world’s only insurance
broker to refuse to accept contingents in its retail business. Aon’s
overdue and muted announcement, floated in mid-summer, should come as a
wake-up call to all risk managers and buyers of insurance to re-evaluate
whether their broker really works for them, or the insurance carrier.
Offering opaque statements about doing what is “legally permissible,”
another competitor has opted to put contingents before principle. Willis
puts clients before contingents.
What buyer of insurance would take comfort in their broker adopting a
minimum standard of what’s “legally permissible” to define their
relationship? Who is really convinced that taking back door payments
from carriers at the end of a year based on profitability and growth of
a book of business is an example of, as Aon’s Steve McGill says in the
company’s news release, “doing what is right to serve the best interests
of our clients”? Clients’ best interests are served when their brokers
work for them, and only them, with standards of service based on ethics
and integrity, not merely on what’s “legally permissible.”
Indeed, Aon’s announcement this week flies directly in the face of what
clients want from their brokers. In a brand new poll of commercial
insurance buyers released by Business Insurance magazine on July
19, 70 percent of buyers said continent commissions represent a conflict
of interest. This is what we have been saying all along: a retail broker
cannot serve two masters. They either represent the client or the
carrier, but they can’t do both.
Willis’ stand is unwavering on the matter of contingent commissions and
is clearly spelled out on www.ClientsBeforeContingents.com,
our web site devoted to this issue. On the site is a full archive of
commentary about the issue and tools for risk managers to take action
and demand true transparency from their brokers. Also on the site is a
White Paper, written by the respected international law firm Edwards
Angell Palmer & Dodge, on contingent compensation. The White Paper,
which was broadly quoted in news stories this week, states clearly that
“A regulatory arrangement built around minimum disclosure requirements
tends to result in just that: minimum disclosure.”
The recent history of broker behavior and regulatory oversight in the
insurance industry is not a proud one. The permissive rules that have
fostered rampant conflicts of interest have returned and, with them, an
industry environment that’s headed deeper into a morass and bound for
more trouble when “legally permissible” is the new standard of
excellence. Our industry can do much better by its clients, and clients
should demand better from their brokers.
About Willis
Willis Group Holdings plc is a leading global insurance broker. Through
its subsidiaries, Willis develops and delivers professional insurance,
reinsurance, risk management, financial and human resource consulting
and actuarial services to corporations, public entities and institutions
around the world. Willis has more than 400 offices in nearly 120
countries, with a global team of approximately 17,000 employees serving
clients in virtually every part of the world. Additional information on
Willis may be found at www.willis.com.
Willis Group Holdings
Media:
Will Thoretz
+1 212 915 8251
will.thoretz@willis.com
or
Investors:
Kerry
K. Calaiaro
+1 212 915 8084
kerry.calaiaro@willis.com
Source: Willis Group Holdings
