Insurance broking
support
Renewals prepared ahead of time, quotes collated for comparison, claims paperwork chased and certificates issued — so the broker spends their day advising clients rather than assembling documents.
Renewal season is a document assembly problem
A broking business runs on a renewal calendar, and every renewal is the same sequence: pull the expiring policy, update the client's details and exposures, request terms from insurers, collate what comes back, and present a comparison the client can decide from.
Almost none of that is advice. It is document assembly against a deadline, and it is what stops brokers from spending time on the conversations that actually retain and grow the book.
A dedicated assistant runs the assembly. The broker keeps the advice, the placement decision and the client relationship — which is what they are licensed and paid for.
What comes off the broker's desk
- Renewal preparation — Expiring policies pulled, client details and exposures updated, and the renewal pack assembled well ahead of the date rather than in the week before.
- Quote collation — Terms requested from your insurer panel, followed up until they arrive, and tabulated like-for-like so the broker can compare rather than decode.
- Claims administration — Claim forms prepared, supporting documents collected, claims lodged to insurer requirements and progress chased on a schedule.
- Certificates of currency — Issued promptly from your system — the request that always arrives when the broker is with a client.
- Policy documentation — Schedules checked against what was placed, endorsements processed, discrepancies queried before the client finds them.
- Client data upkeep — Broking system records kept accurate — contacts, exposures, renewal dates, claims history.
- Premium funding admin — Applications prepared and tracked, and settlement documentation chased.
- Compliance file checks — Files checked for completeness against your licensee's requirements, with gaps chased while the detail is fresh.
The work that comes off your desk
Broking is a calendar business. Every policy has an expiry date, and the work that has to happen before it — the declaration chased, the submission built, the quotes compared, the closing processed, the certificate issued — happens whether or not anyone has time. Most of it is document handling, portal work and follow-up sitting on top of the broker's client conversations.
Builds the renewal questionnaire from the expiring schedule in WinBEAT, Insight or the firm's broking system, pre-fills sums insured, turnover, wages and claims history, sends it out ahead of expiry and keeps chasing until it comes back signed.
Assembles the submission pack: completed proposal, claims experience for the years the market asks for, asset and location schedules, declared values for ISR, contract and lease extracts, then lodges to each insurer through Sunrise Exchange or the underwriter's portal and logs the reference.
Puts the terms back from each insurer side by side: base premium against statutory charges, excesses, sub-limits, endorsements applied, exclusions added, and every point where the quoted terms differ from expiring cover, flagged for the broker to work through.
Processes the closing in the broking system, checks the premium breakdown splits correctly across base premium, GST, stamp duty at the right state rate and the emergency services levy where it applies, then raises and issues the invoice.
Prepares the funding quote in IQumulate, Attvest or Hunter, generates the contract for the client to sign, loads the settlement once signed, and reconciles the funder's payment against the invoice and the insurer's due date.
Checks the insurer's schedule line by line against what was placed: named insured and ABN, sums insured, interested parties, endorsements, excesses and period of cover. Raises the correction with the underwriter before the document pack goes to the client.
Prepares certificates for landlords, principals, head contractors, councils and financiers and issues them once the broker has approved the wording, compares the noted or interested party wording against the requirement the broker has identified in the contract, and pulls the insurer-issued certificate from the portal where only the insurer can produce it.
Executes the broker's written instruction to vary cover — vehicle additions and deletions, new locations, sums insured changes, named insured amendments and interested party notings — keying it into Sunrise or the insurer portal exactly as instructed and with no discretion of its own, then issues the adjustment invoice and the updated schedule to the client.
Lodges the claim on the insurer's portal, completes the claim form, gathers quotes, invoices, incident and police reports and photographs, chases the assessor and loss adjuster for movement, and keeps the claims register and the client's status updates current.
Builds the loss history the broker takes to market and to the renewal meeting: claims by class and by underwriting year, paid against incurred, open claims with current reserves, and the large loss detail insurers ask about.
Works the expiry listing so nothing runs off unnoticed, chases unsigned proposals and unreturned declarations, and follows up outstanding premiums before the insurer's cancellation notice period starts running. Processes cancellations, refunds and return premiums when they do.
Merges duplicate client records, corrects entity names and ABNs against the Australian Business Register, attaches missing wordings, schedules and invoices to the right policy, and fills in the occupation and business description fields underwriters rate from.
Checks each file carries what the licensee's audit will look for: the Financial Services Guide issued, or the website disclosure the licensee relies on instead, the signed proposal or declaration, the broker's file note, the confirmation of cover, and the product disclosure documents sent to the client.
What stays with you
We are a staffing company, so this list argues against our own interest. It is also the part that matters: the work below is reserved, and no amount of supervision moves it. Get the line written down before anyone starts in a broking business.
- Recommending cover and sums insuredAdvice on what cover to buy, what limits to carry and what to insure a building or stock for is financial product advice. Only a representative of the licensee — an employee, a director or an appointed authorised representative — may give it. Support staff lay out the options.AFS licence under the Corporations Act 2001, administered by ASIC
- Authority to bind coverAccepting terms, binding cover and issuing a policy under a binder are acts of an authorised person, in some cases acting as agent of the insurer. The instruction to bind comes from the broker, never from the support desk.AFS licence and the insurer's binder or placing authority
- Client money and the trust accountPremium held for a client sits in a statutory trust account with strict rules on what goes in, what comes out and when. Payment authority and the reconciliation sign-off stay with the licensee, and an auditor tests them.Section 981B Corporations Act; annual FS70 and FS71 lodged with ASIC
- Claims decisions made for insurersA broker assisting its own client with a claim is on the insured's side of the table. Deciding or settling a claim on an insurer's behalf has been a separate licensed financial service since 1 January 2022 and is not administrative work.Claims handling and settling authorisation on an AFS licence
- The licensee remains responsibleThe licensee must have adequate resources and supervision for everything done on its files, wherever the person doing it sits. Offshore staff work inside the brokerage's compliance framework, under its procedures, not around them.Section 912A Corporations Act and the NIBA Insurance Brokers Code of Practice
- Client information sent overseasClaim files, medical reports, identity documents and financial detail are personal information, and the brokerage stays accountable for what an overseas recipient does with it. That means contractual terms, access controls and a settled answer on where the data is held — decided before an offshore person opens a file, not after.Australian Privacy Principle 8 and section 16C, Privacy Act 1988; OAIC
Roles for broking businesses
Insurance claims processor
Claims lodged, documents chased, progress tracked.
Explore →Administration assistant
Renewals, certificates and policy documentation.
Explore →Broker support officer
End-to-end broking support and client admin.
Explore →Accounts receivable specialist
Premium collection and debtor follow-up.
Explore →The advice line
Insurance advice is regulated financial services work under an AFS licence. Preparation and administration travel; advice and placement do not.
- Insurance adviceRecommending cover, sums insured or a policy is licensed advice and stays with your authorised representative. Never delegated, in any form.
- Placement decisionsWhich insurer and which terms to place is the broker's decision.
- Claims determinationsExplaining coverage or advising a client on a declined claim is advice.
- Client-facing recommendationsChasing documents and confirming details is fine. Anything a client could act on as advice is not.
Specialist roles for broking businesses
Three dedicated roles, each with the AFS advice boundary stated explicitly.