Are you great at research? Do you like shopping around? If you want to combine your interest in insurance with your desire to help your clients, a career as an insurance broker could be perfect for you.

Are you interested in a career as an insurance broker? Explore the financial service sector graduate opportunities available to you right now.

What do insurance brokers do?

Insurance brokers use their knowledge of the insurance sector to find their clients the best deal for the insurance that they need. In this role, you look for great opportunities with insurance that a client might not be able to find for themselves and agree on the best deal you can with the insurance company. Here are the responsibilities that you have as an insurance broker:

Meet with clients to discuss the type of insurance they want and what they need from a policy
Research the policies currently available based on the client’s requirements and your own knowledge of the sector
Speak with insurance providers and negotiate the best deal you can get for your client
Provide advice for your clients if they’re looking to make a claim

You can complete this Bright Network Academy Insurance Sector 101 module led by Allianz to learn more about what happens in the sector and why you might enjoy working in it.

Insurance broker career path

The insurance broker career path opens up many opportunities to you both within the organisation you work for and in terms of learning about other relevant careers. For example, if you enjoy the advice side of the job but want to move away from insurance, you could become a financial adviser. Here is the typical career path associated with insurance brokers:

Entry-level

Many people begin their careers in a trainee insurance broker role. Being a trainee insurance broker is a starting position where you learn all the key skills and gain the necessary experience that you need for the rest of your career. This means being trained by senior colleagues and having your work assessed by them.

Career progression

Once you’ve completed your training course, you become a mid-level insurance broker. In this role, you’re given your own clients and you’re responsible for looking after their needs. You make sure that they receive any necessary advice before the process begins, find their insurance policies and assist them if they need to make a claim. Whilst you don’t have the level of observation associated with trainee roles, you can still ask your colleagues for advice if you need it.

Future career

With many years of experience and after building up a positive track record, you become a senior insurance broker. Your tasks are very similar to mid-level insurance brokers but with more complex cases and with the added responsibility of training junior or trainee staff members. They may help you with your work or you may set them their own clients which you assist them with.

Insurance broker salaries

As an insurance broker, you typically work for an insurance broker firm. The specific salary that you earn throughout your career depends on the size of the firm, its location and your skills and ability. Here are the salaries that you could earn as an insurance broker:

In an entry-level position like a trainee insurance broker, you earn £25,000 per year on average
As a mid-level insurance broker, you earn £30,000 per year on average
As a senior insurance broker, you can earn upwards of £40,000, up to £55,000

Qualifications and training

Having the right education and experience helps you increase your success in getting an insurance broker job. Here are the qualifications and training that you need to get into the career path:

Education

Many insurance brokers have an undergraduate degree. Relevant degrees include finance-based degrees and business studies. With experience, you could join the career with other less relevant degrees. A degree in a finance subject teaches you the contextual information about the finance sector that helps you have a greater understanding of the role you’re going into. It also means you can get into graduate trainee schemes and jobs.

Another option is an apprenticeship. In an apprenticeship, current employees in the sector teach you how to do the job. Whilst this saves on tuition costs, you also earn a modest salary for the work you do. If you’re interested in apprenticeship opportunities, you can use the government apprenticeship search tool to explore current options. Whilst there are positives to doing an apprenticeship and a degree, take time to consider which option is best for you, your future and your learning style.

Work experience

If you decide to go down the degree route, having some work experience on top of your education helps you impress a hiring manager and secure a job. One great way of getting work experience is through an internship. An internship teaches you relevant skills that you need to do the job and shows you what the working environment is like. If you’re interested in doing an internship, explore internships in the financial services sector available right now.

Insurance broker skills

Alongside having great qualifications and experience, showing off your skillset is a good way to impress a hiring manager. You should have some examples of when you’ve used or acquired the skills throughout your career or education. Here are the skills that you need for a job as an insurance broker:

Hard skills

Knowledge of the insurance industry. You should know the types of insurance available, the specifications of each type, the main firms that offer the insurance and any requirements that the firm might have for your client. Knowing this means you can provide relevant information to your clients.

Soft skills

Persuasion. You should be a confident communicator and able to persuade insurance companies to give your client the best deal they can. You also need to convey to new clients that you’re great at your job and can get them a great deal which means having good communication skills and being persuasive. Brush up on your communication skills and become an excellent communicator with this Bright Network Academy module on adapting your communication style
Research. To be an insurance broker, you need to conduct research into the deals available which are suitable for your client. You also need to be up to date on the type of insurance plans available which means doing some digging to find the ideal schemes.
Eager to learn. Since working as an insurance broker means understanding intricate details about the insurance sector, you need to keep yourself up to date on the developments in policy, regulations and providers. This means having an eagerness to learn to make sure you’re providing the best service you can to your clients.

Pros and cons of being an insurance broker

As with any job, there are positive and negative parts to working as an insurance broker. Knowing the good and bad about the work can help you decide if it’s the type of job you’d be interested in doing long term. Here are the pros and cons of being an insurance broker:

Pros

You get to work with many different clients on lots of different projects which can make your work more interesting.
You have the opportunity to specialise in an area that interests you throughout your career.
Part of your work is communicating with people in insurance firms and clients. This can be an enjoyable part of the job if you’re good at communicating and enjoy this type of conversation.

Cons

Due to the industry you’re working in, many people find working in insurance to be a stressful career path.
Whilst the top wages in insurance broking aren’t bad, you most likely won’t get rich and may reach a limit that you can’t earn beyond.
Your daily work can be monotonous.

Insurance broker work-life balance

Your working life is primarily standard office hours of 9am to 5pm on Monday to Friday. You most likely won’t have much overtime to do in the career path which makes maintaining a good work-life balance relatively easy. However, the insurance sector is known for being stressful because of the high-pressure nature of insurance. Having some good stress management strategies before you join the career path can help you deal with the stress you come across throughout your working life.

Typical employers

Knowing the typical employers that could hire you means you can do your own research so you can tailor the applications to the company you want to work for. Here are the organisations that you could work for in insurance broking:

Insurance Broker