Women not going for brokers

Female small business owners are less likely to get advice on how to insure their business than males, research shows.

A survey of 900 business people by insurer Vero found just over half (54 per cent) of female business owners said they used a broker to get insurance, compared to 71 per cent of male owners.

Across both men and women, the biggest reason for not using a broker to buy insurance was because they believed they could do it themselves (58 per cent). Nearly one in four said they did not want to deal with a middleman, while 18 per cent of the females surveyed and 12 per cent of males did not see any benefit.

Women were also more sceptical about commissions than men, with 16 per cent believing a broker was more likely to recommend a policy that offered them the biggest commission compared to 12 per cent of men surveyed. But men were less trusting, with 26 per cent saying they did not use a broker because they did not trust them to offer the best policy, compared to 3 per cent of women.

They survey also found a lower awareness by women of using brokers, with 13 per cent saying they did not use one because they had not thought about it, compared to just 2 per cent of men.

Catherine Bateman, executive general manager customer experience at Vero, said despite the broker industry being male dominated she did not believe that was a factor putting women off them.

“We have asked women why they don’t use brokers and that did not come up,” she said.

The main area of difference between men and women was awareness of using a broker, she said. The research found female small business owners were more likely to be younger, with 63 per cent of females under 50, and only 39 per cent of males.

Females were also more likely to work in or own larger businesses and less likely to be sole traders. Bateman said that could reflect the fact more women felt empowered to start a business these days.