Does using a broker cost me more?

Not directly. Brokers are generally paid a commission by the carrier that is built into the premium rather than added to it, so the quoted price is the price. Where a broker costs you more is if they place you with one carrier who happens to be dearer; where they save you money is by getting the classification right, by finding a market that wants your class, and by preventing an audit bill at the end of the year. Ask how you are being paid — a broker who will not answer that is telling you something.

Are the carriers behind online quotes worse than the ones a broker uses?

No, and it is the wrong question. Much of the direct market is backed by large, well-rated carriers, and some are the same paper a broker would place you on. What differs is not the balance sheet but the distribution: how much of your business the system is able to consider, what happens when your answers do not fit the form, and whether anyone is available to argue your case at renewal. Judge the fit, not the logo.

I already bought online. Can a broker review it?

Yes, and that is a sensible thing to have done before a renewal rather than after a claim. A review reads what the policy actually covers against what your business actually does — the classification, the exclusions, the limits against your contracts. Sometimes the answer is that the policy is fine and you should keep it. That answer is worth having in writing.

What if I have a claim on my record?

Then you are in the group brokers exist for. Automated underwriting handles loss history badly because it cannot ask the follow-up question: what happened, what changed afterwards, and whether the operation that produced it is still the operation. An account presented with the loss explained and the remediation documented places very differently from the same account run through a form.

Should I buy business insurance online or through a broker?

Buy online if your business is small, standard, claim-free and nobody is handing you a contract with insurance requirements in it — the product will be cheaper and quicker, and there is nothing a broker adds. Use a broker when any of those is untrue: prior losses, a non-renewal, mixed operations, limits above a package, an unusual class, or a contract specifying endorsements. The online funnel is not built to say yes to those, and it will not tell you why it said no.

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Tell us the situation.

A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.

We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.

The detail

An insurance producer must hold a licence in the state where the risk is located, whether the business is placed directly or through an agency.
State insurance departments
A certificate of liability insurance on the ACORD 25 form states that it confers no rights on the certificate holder and that additional insured status must be created by endorsement to the policy.
ACORD certificate forms

What this means for you

A direct quote is priced by a model that has to decide in seconds. Anything it cannot classify — an unusual operation, a loss it cannot interpret, a class it does not write — comes back as a decline or a price with a wide margin built in, and neither outcome is explained.
A broker's value is not price on a simple risk. It is access to more than one market, the ability to present a difficult account so an underwriter can say yes, and knowing which endorsement a contract clause is asking for before the certificate is rejected.
Check what the online product actually excludes before you compare it on price. Packaged products commonly exclude or sublimit the exact operation that made you shop — work at height, subcontracted labour, professional advice, or the customer property in your care.
If you are being asked for additional insured status, primary and non-contributory wording, a waiver of subrogation or a per-project aggregate, you are past what most self-service products will issue. That is not a criticism of them; it is what they are for.
Nobody should pay a broker for a business the online market handles well. If that is you, it is worth being told so plainly.

Need this handled?

We do the filings, and we place the accounts other brokers decline — lapsed authority, claims history, new ventures. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.