In one of our recent articles, Whose information is it any way?, the ownership of client information was questioned. In the case at hand a broker requested information from a product provider, only to be told that the information would not be sent to him, but to the client, despite a perfectly legal request from the client that it should go directly to the adviser.
Our colleague, Paull Lawrence, provided the following insight:
The Policyholder Protection Rules (PPR) states that information must be provided to the intermediary or client, irrespective of whether there is an intermediary contract or not.
| “12.3 | Requests for information | |
| 12.3.1 | An insurer must at the written request of an intermediary that is authorised in writing by a policyholder or a member provide that intermediary or the policyholder or member with the information referred to in the authorisation, within a reasonable time after receipt of the request, irrespective of the fact that the intermediary does not have an intermediary agreement with that insurer. | |
| 12.3.2 | Where the insurer provides the information referred to in rule 12.3.1 to the policyholder or member, the insurer must also provide the policyholder or member with a fair and objective explanation as to why the information was not provided to the intermediary.” | |
It would appear that some product providers exploit the rather loose wording (“or”) to discriminate against non-contracted intermediaries by sending the information to the client, rather than to the person who requested the information, as they do with contracted advisers. The rationale for doing so is, at best, dubious.
