How brokers can boost their value proposition

Brokers continue to believe specialization is an important key to their future success.

So say the majority of broker respondents to Canadian Underwriter’s 2025 National Broker Survey. Eighty four percent answered ‘yes’ when asked whether brokers ‘need to become more specialized to withstand changing technology and sales models.’ This year’s percentage is only slightly below the 86% of brokers giving that response in both 2024 and 2023.

Women brokers (87%) are a bit more likely to support the need to specialize than men (82%), and brokers with fewer than 16 years of experience are most likely (90%) to agree with the statement than those who’ve been brokers for three decades or longer (70%).

Related: Brokerage owners list top 2025 concerns

Meanwhile, 80% of respondents agree with the statement ‘brokers are successfully communicating their value to consumers and businesses,’ which is consistent with responses over the past five surveys. Agreement with the statement topped out at 83% of respondents in 2021.

Women agree with the statement (88%) more than men (73%). And those at smaller and medium-sized firms (83% for both categories) are more likely to say brokers do a good job of ensuring customers understand the broker value proposition.

Respondents were less likely to agree (59%) with the statement ‘with all of the recent and anticipated changes in the insurance industry, brokers face more opportunities than threats.’ Over the past five years, agreement with this question has swung between 54% in 2021 and 61% last year.

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Men and women respondents tie on the optimism scale at 58%. And brokers at smaller firms with 20 or fewer people are least optimistic about opportunities at 44%, compared with 64% at brokerages with between 20 and 99 employees and 69% at firms employing 100 or more people.

Related: Why brokers are optimistic about 2025

Just 56% of respondents in 2025 agree with the statement ‘insurance carriers are striking a fair balance between the interests of carriers and brokers,’ although that represents an uptick over previous years. In 2024’s survey, 51% agreed with the statement and 48% agreed in both 2023 and 2022. Only 45% agreed with the statement in 2021.

Respondents at brokerages with more than 100 employees are most likely to agree carriers strike a fair balance (65%), compared with 52% at mid-sized brokerages and 46% at firms with fewer than 20 employees. Women (63%) were significantly more likely to agree than men (43%).

Canadian Underwriter’s 2025 National Broker Survey was fielded between Jan. 22 and Feb. 20 with 165 responses. For most questions sets, respondents were able to choose multiple answers, so totals will not always equal 100%. The survey is supported by Sovereign Insurance.

Phil Porado

Phil, an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience in financial topics, has been managing editor of Canadian Underwriter for more than three years.