Starting your own insurance firm requires an Olympian effort doesn’t it?  You might think so, as everyone – including ourselves at Gauntlet Enterprise and Gauntlet Group – know that starting a new business, and becoming a new start-up insurance broker, takes a lot of resource and effort.

In the insurance sector, with regulation as it is, it also entails gaining Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA ) approval – and that can take a considerable number of months, as well as the need to prove you have sufficient capital reserves.  Get it and then you would be responsible for keeping on top of compliance – and on top of everything else you need to do to get an independent insurance brokerage launched and become the new insurance firm on the block.

If your business plan needs you to be 100% focused on sales, as it needs to as that’s your income, who’s going to do the administration?  Will you hit another hurdle because you don’t have a cutting-edge IT system … but how can you possibly afford one, as an insurance start-up?  How on earth can you find insurers happy to work with you and where can you place your insurance risks?

The effort behind starting an insurance firm

The truth is, yes, it does require an Olympian effort to start your own insurance brokerage … but only if you go it alone and try to become a directly authorised insurance broker.

If you want to get up and running fast and heading towards your life goals’ finishing line, the other option is that of becoming an appointed representative, which could see you on your starting blocks in just a few weeks.  The way you do that is by joining an appointed representative network, as what is known as an AR, and you allow your network ‘principal’ to be responsible for compliance, as well as other aspects of your new start-up operation.  The trade-off is a commission split.  The advantage is that you probably couldn’t afford all that you get in return – well with Gauntlet’s model, anyway, as we can’t speak for others.

What does the Gauntlet AR network provide?

There are various AR networks, but if you want to have a network that will partner in your growth as a new start-up broker, you probably need look no further than Gauntlet.

As a Gauntlet AR, you would receive everything you require to become a successful insurance broker.

• full FCA compliance, handled on your behalf
• award-winning Acturis IT
• access to 210 insurers and facilities
• access to schemes only available to members of Willis Towers Watson Networks
• a fabulous range of training and CPD resources
• full administrative support and client money handling
• mentoring from a broker manager
• broking of your risks, if you want us to do that
• marketing support
• peer networking opportunities

We shall also be announcing a ‘first’, very soon.

How to become an Appointed Representative

Whether or not we are right for each other really depends on your business plan and on you.  We do aim for the gold-medal standard with our ARs and are very selective, but that may not put you off at all,  if you are an insurance account executive who thinks you’ve got what it takes to run your own business and are willing to put in the hard yards to prove it to us.

Basically, if we think you are right for us, we will do all the heavy lifting when it comes to getting you launched as new insurance firm and up and running.  You won’t even have to chalk up your hands!

Just contact NigelLaw@GauntletGroup.com or call him on 07774 690436, to see if you could be sprinting towards your new life as an independent start-up broker, or fill in our online enquiry form.