The Gauntlet Group Appointed Representative Network is delighted to have scooped a Bronze Award, at the prestigious Insurance Times Awards 2022, for ‘Business Partner of the Year’.

The award recognises the huge efforts that Gauntlet has made, in 2022, to differentiate its Appointed Representative network from others out there, on the basis of its investment in the insurance account executives who join and carry out their insurance broking business within its network, as start-up brokers trading under its FCA permissions.

What Gauntlet Appointed Representatives get from their business partner

Whilst other networks provides the compliance umbrella that the FCA needs to see, along with some support services for start-up and fledgling brokers, Gauntlet takes that further, ensuring that every contractual agreement with an Appointed Representative is a true business partnership and one focused on mutual growth and prosperity.

For this reason, many Appointed Representatives working with Gauntlet are not new brokerages but well-established and highly profitable insurance businesses whose founders recognise are better off working with Gauntlet, as their dynamic business partner, than seeking to go it alone.

Investing time and money in our Appointed Representatives

To differentiate its appointed representative network proposition in its 13^th year as an AR Principal, Gauntlet has invested heavily in its Acturis IT systems.  These have been closely aligned with the needs of its AR trading partners, through the writing of bespoke software and clever tailoring.

Gauntlet has invested in two conferences, to help boost the sales pipeline of its Appointed Representatives, inspire them and help them come together as a network, for mutual support and the sharing of best practice.

It has equipped each of its Appointed Representatives with an online quote-and-buy facility and online document vault, to help them capitalise on the huge boom in insurance sales transacted through e-trade.  This allows them to earn a new income stream from the easier- to-arrange commercial and personal lines covers that they would normally struggle to focus on, in the course of their working week, if priorities are with bigger risk management cases.

It has also invested in training sessions, launched a podcast, Mind the Gaps, on which its Appointed Representatives can have a voice, showcasing their particular areas of expertise, and used its direct sales team as a test-bed for sales campaigns and lead generation initiatives.  Once tested, the most successful can be rolled out to Appointed Representatives.

Launching the UK’s first broker deauthorisation model

Gauntlet has also developed the first model of broker de-authorisation in the UK, to rescue directly authorised brokers who are drowning under the demands of compliance and worried sick about their accounting, IT and PI insurance.  Through Gauntlet De-authorisation Fast-track, such brokers can have all of their systems integrated with Gauntlet’s and be trading under its FCA permissions, as Appointed Representatives, within just 8 weeks.

Spearheading the local broker renaissance

Above all, however, Gauntlet has spearheaded the renaissance of the local broker, providing dedicated local brokers, often operating at the heart of their own communities (local or niche-interest), with the power to their elbow that they require, if they are to compete with big conglomerates.

“We are leading the fight-back of the local broker,” says Gauntlet Group’s managing director, Roger Gaunt, “by giving them the access to market, slick IT, marketing, sales support and training that they require.  With our help, they can not only do what the big conglomerates do but also gain competitive advantage, because they have all that the bigger players have, plus local knowledge, local insight and the capacity to understand a customer’s business inside-out.

“There is nothing more dynamic than that and it’s something the consolidated insurance brokers just cannot offer to their clients, who are just numbers on a spreadsheet. What we are powering is traditional local broking, of the super-charged variety, but we are also doing it as a true business partner, caring about our ARs’ success and growth.  That’s truly compelling and we are delighted that the Insurance Times judges recognised that.”

If you would like to find out how to become an Appointed Representative of Gauntlet Group, either as a start-up broker, switching AR or de-authorising broker, please contact NigelLaw@GauntletGroup.com or explore our website here and at www.gauntletgroup.com