ABSTRACT
Insurance intermediaries (or brokers as they are usually known) have been around since the earliest days of insurance. Even by 1575, the first intermediaries were recorded. As marine insurance developed, brokers developed as well, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century were a well-established part of the process. Although commonly termed ‘brokers’, not all intermediaries act as brokers as the term is generally understood. Although the term ‘broker’ used to possess a legal/regulatory meaning, since 2001, this has no longer been the case. The term ‘intermediary’will be preferred in this chapter as this is currently the regulatory term used. Similarly, the policyholder is normally termed the client by intermediaries and both terms will be used in this chapter.
