Willis slams Aon's stance on contingent commissions

Willis Group Holdings has responded to the announcement by Aon Corporation that it would resume accepting contingent commissions “where appropriate and legally permissible”.

Willis has labelled Aon's position on contingent commissions "troublesome and ambiguous" and said it now stands as the world's only insurance broker to refuse to accept contingents in its retail business.

The move comes after the broker stepped up its campaign by distributing a third-party white paper detailing what it described as "the conflicts of interest created by the controversial payments".

In a statement Willis said: "Aon's overdue and muted announcement, floated in mid-summer, should come as a wake-up call to all risk managers and buyers of insurance to re-evaluate whether their broker really works for them, or the insurance carrier. Offering opaque statements about doing what is "legally permissible," another competitor has opted to put contingents before principle. Willis puts clients before contingents.

"What buyer of insurance would take comfort in their broker adopting a minimum standard of what's ‘legally permissible' to define their relationship? Who is really convinced that taking back door payments from carriers at the end of a year based on profitability and growth of a book of business is an example of, as Aon's Steve McGill says in the company's news release, "doing what is right to serve the best interests of our clients?" Clients' best interests are served when their brokers work for them, and only them, with standards of service based on ethics and integrity, not merely on what's ‘legally permissible'."

In a poll of commercial insurance buyers released by Business Insurance magazine, 70% of buyers said continent commissions represent a conflict of interest.

Willis endorsed the findings, saying: "This is what we have been saying all along: a retail broker cannot serve two masters. They either represent the client or the carrier, but they can't do both."