by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Botched insurance policies could cost clients a lot of money if they make a claim.

A recent survey of accuracy and efficiency in the commercial insurance sector has found an increasing error rate.

The Sixth Annual Insurance Standards survey by The Insurance Manager, based in Throwley, near Faversham, is regarded as a valuable measure of broker performance.

A review of documents from a wide range of brokers revealed an increasing number of mistakes. They range from typing errors to significant errors that, if not corrected, could result in a claim being rejected. This year’s survey found an error rate of 38%, up from 24% last year.

The Insurance Manager’s managing director Danny Cooper said the mistakes showed many brokers and their staff were "not up to it".

Chartered brokers were no better than those without that status, he said. They needed to get their act together and check documents carefully before they were issued. They should not expect a busy businessman to read every line of a complex document.

Standards had slipped, he said. "The key factors contributing to this are, in our opinion, a lack of knowledge and training, dependency on inadequate computer systems and overstretched resources," he said. "There are absolutely millions of policies being sent out by insurance companies incorrectly. The brokers have looked at them, supposedly checked them but still sent them out incorrect.

"Those errors range from something very simple like getting an address wrong, or it could be more technical and worrying because if there is a condition on a policy, or an exclusion or a warranty - if you are required to do something and you don’t know you’re required to do it - it could make the policy void. The brokers are not doing their job and we’re ending up as their quality department."

It was time for the industry to "grab it by the scruff of the neck and do something about it."

He was considering naming and shaming the worst offenders, but before doing that he hoped to publish a table of brokers with the most improved performance.