The insurance brokerage market - Brazil

Insurance brokers are part of the largest category of middlemen, those who facilitate the reconciliation of supply and demand within a given organizational context (e.g. real estate, insurance). Unlike insurance agents, who are employed by an insurance company, brokers work on behalf of the client and have no working relationship with the insurance company. The role of the broker is therefore not to sell a specific policy, but to provide advice on a variety of solutions. Insurance brokers can work independently or for a brokerage house and can represent two types of clients: private or corporate. The advent of the Internet has helped to develop insurance contracting channels of all kinds. This is a problem for insurance brokers and a source of increased competition, as visibility becomes more difficult and online supply more abundant. The insurance market in Brazil is still characterized by high concentration and low use of technology. The insurance brokerage segment has about 100,000 professionals, in addition to about 4,000 new license applications per year. According to CNseg (National Confederation of General Insurance, Private Pension and Life, Supplementary Health and Capitalization Companies), a growth between 6.3% and 8.4% is expected this year. New opportunities rely on certain sub-segments such as housing insurance, the extended guarantee and rural insurance. Players planning to enter the insurance brokerage market should be trying the new Provisional Measure 905, of the programa Verde e Amarelo (Green and Yellow program) to stimulate employment, which ended with the regulation of the insurance brokerage profession. Before the measure, no person without professional registration with Susep (Superintendence of Private Insurance) could work as an insurance broker. [Folha de S. Paulo]