Bergenser Law Firm has extensive experience in the issues relating to the liability of insurance agents which first and foremost is regulated in the Insurance Agents’ Act and in the Order on Good Practice for Insurance Agents.
Considering the fairly great amount of insurance agents doing business in Denmark there is almost no case law within this area. The liability situations arise from the core service of the insurance agents relating to clarification of the clients’ insurance needs and from situations where the insurance agents assists their clients in giving notice of claims or damages, including compliance to time limits. Insurance agents also advise clients on coverage issues, and to an increasing extent insurance agents assist clients in relation to the insurance companies’ claims management. In these situations the liability of the insurance agents is similar to the liability of lawyers.
Bergenser Law Firm has in-depth experience in the special rules on needs analysis and requirements to drafting written agreements and in the regulation on proxies which the insurance agents according to the Order on Good Practice must respect. Finally we work with issues relating to the ethical code of the Insurance Agents’ Association.
The insurance agents are subject to a normal professional liability standard, a standard of liability based on negligence where it is essential to determine how the ordinary good insurance broker should act in a given situation. It is important to note that the ordinary good action not necessarily is the same as the optimal action.
On that note it is important to stress that the nature of the insurance broker’s duties is different from those of the insurer due to the fact that insurance agents must be independent from the insurance companies, whereas this is not the case with the insurers.
Insurance agents are unlike certain other professions subject to supervision from the Danish FSA. Therefore insurance agents are subject to complicated regulation according to the Insurance Mediation Act with regard to the operation of insurance agents’ businesses.
Bergenser Law Firm also provides advisory to insurance agents on these special regulation issues.