Hiscox hits top spot

Hiscox has leapt to the number one spot in an Insurance Times survey to find the insurer that provides the best service to brokers.

The Broker Service Survey 2009 asked brokers to rate insurers on criteria including quality of cover and speed and fairness of claims handling. Hiscox claimed the top spot for commercial lines insurers, with an overall satisfaction score of 84% – an improvement of 4% on last year’s performance.

One respondent said: “Hiscox has a can-do attitude on underwriting and claims.”A further commented: “They do not quibble on claims and they act always in the client’s best interests.”

The brokers surveyed came from a cross-section of the market, in terms of location, size of firm and job title. They were only asked to rate those aspects of the service of which they had direct knowledge.

Brokers were asked to judge insurers on five categories: the speed of access to decision makers; underwriting expertise; quality of cover; speed, accuracy and clarity of documentation; and speed and fairness of claims handling. Hiscox came first for claims handling and joint first in underwriting expertise.