In many buildings the affairs are run not by an individual property manager but by a management company – and then the question is fair: where does a broker fit into that picture? The answer: in exactly the same place as in buildings with an individual manager. The managing agent and the broker are not rivals but two different professions – and their good cooperation is what brings the building the most.
- The management company is the specialist in running the building; the broker is the specialist in getting competing quotes on the insurance market – the two roles complement each other.
- The typical division of labour: the managing agent supplies the building's data and the decision-making process, the broker brings the market competition and the decision-support materials.
- In claims the casting works best when it is set down in writing: who reports, who follows the case, and when the broker steps in.
Two professions, two resources
The strength of a management company is its knowledge of the building and its operating routine: it holds the data, the contracts, the relationships with residents, the meeting calendar. The broker's strength is the market: requesting quotes from several insurers, comparing the policy terms, the decision-support table and helping with claims. A managing agent cannot be expected to follow the insurance market day by day – that is not its job; and a broker cannot be expected to run the building's operations. The dividing line is natural, it just needs to be said out loud.
How good cooperation runs
At the quote stage the managing agent provides the data on the basis of the survey data list – for them it is routine work, since the papers are in their hands. The tendering and the table are my job; in preparing the general meeting or the owners' decision, the agent brings the process and I bring the materials. When a policy is taken out or switched, the paperwork is mine, while the agent handles the signatures on the building's side and the records. Premium payment and the policy register live in the agent's bookkeeping – while the comparison at renewal and the review – if the building lets me know beforehand – are mine to do. That way no work is duplicated on either side.
Claims: the most important thing to clarify
The casting for claims is worth setting down in advance, in writing: a claim affecting the building's policy is typically reported by the managing agent through the insurer's claims line and online claims portal (they hold the policy number and can reach the site), residents are informed by the agent, and the agent follows the progress of the case – if it stalls, I help where I can. My entry point is fixed in the system: the broker steps in when a case stalls or becomes disputed, and I then help the building – that is what the article on stalled claims is about. So residents hear from a single channel, while in the background everyone practises their own profession.
What should the managing agent ask the broker – and the other way round?
A good managing agent asks the broker about the transparency of remuneration (my answer is public: the intermediary's commission is paid by the insurer, and the service is free of charge for the building), about how the process is documented, and about the undertakings on claims. What I ask the agent about is the decision-making order: who decides, with what mandate, when the building meets – because I tailor my materials to that. The essence of the relationship is transparency: everyone knows who is responsible for what, and the building can see it too. If there is a change – of managing agent or of property manager – continuity has an article of its own: a change of managing agent and the policy.
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