The Insurance Act 2015 (‘the Act’) has received a great deal of attention in insurance circles, both during its consultation period and since it was passed into law. The new regime will govern every business insurance (or reinsurance) contract placed, renewed or amended under English or other UK law on or after 12th August 2016 (and it is the date the insurance is placed, rather than policy inception, which counts).
This is the second of two BIBA/Mactavish guides on the subject. The first part, Insurance Act 2015: An Introductory Guide, summarises the changes included in the new Act and the key questions that market participants needed to think about in advance of the August 2016 deadline. This second guide focuses in more detail on helping brokers to prepare their customers and to avoid compliance failure themselves, while also raising awareness of the corresponding challenges facing insurers.
Implementation Guide Sections
- Challenges of implementation – Builds on the explanation of the Act in the Introductory Guide and details nuances which brokers need to be aware of once they understand the core concepts in the first guide. This ‘devil in the detail’ section covers some more challenging aspects of the Act which brokers will need to invest time in thinking through.
- Implementation measures – Maps out implementation ideas from the perspective of customers, brokers and insurers. The aim is to ensure that brokers can respond effectively but are also alert to potential developments which place compliance risk on the broker. Simplified pull-out leaflets for broker and customer are also included.
- Broker toolkit – Updates the broker toolkit from the Introductory Guide to give brokers a checklist to refer to once the legislation goes live.
