MORE than 300 insurance brokers who are potentially not registered have been found advertising in the Yellow Pages.
The findings came from an Australian Securities and Investments Commission campaign.
The ASIC believes there may be
hundreds of people acting as insurance brokers who wrongly believe they do not need to be registered because they act as agents or franchisees of large insurance broking organisations.
The last act of the ASIC campaign came with the acceptance of an
enforceable undertaking from entities operating under the name One to One Insurance Solutions.
The WA-based organisation promoted franchises in its insurance broking operations on the basis that the franchises offered “all the benefits of registration without needing to become registered”.
ASIC Office of Consumer Protection director Peter Kell said anyone in the business of insurance broking was required by law to be registered to
protect consumers and small businesses using them.
The ASIC’s activity revealed:
• A high proportion of people identified by the research were listed as insurance brokers either by mistake or inadvertently
• More than seventy people were registered brokers who were advertising using unregistered business names
• A significant and growing trend of people who claim they do not have to be registered because they are an agent of a registered broker or because they act in association with a registered broker.
