Millennium Insurance Attains Gold Standard Achievement

11/04/2010 09:00:00 by Marketing

Millennium Insurance – the ‘noticeably different’ distribution arm to Direct Group has recently achieved a prestigious accolade.

Millennium Insurance has always stood for quality, where staff, processes and systems are concerned. This has now been recognised in the industry through gaining the CII’s Gold Standard for Chartered Insurance Brokers. The CII are dedicated to achieving high standards of competence and integrity and is aligned with Millennium’s core values and business ethics:

What the achievement means?

Millennium’s clients and customers have long since known that they offer a quality service and this latest recognition will provide the wider-industry with the knowledge of the high-level of service and expertise that Millennium can offer.

Millennium will continue to offer their expertise under delegated authority from a range of insurers specialising in Personal Lines particularly Household, providing a full range of insurance & protection services.

Steve Clowes (Director) commented, “Achieving Chartered Broker Status was not something we just did overnight, it has taken up time and effort and many years of study. As a management team we needed to commit resources over a number of years to raise and maintain those standards. We first set out the Core Values in 2002 and added the last one in 2005 as we entered the new regulated world. For our parent company Direct Group, it was important that staff worked in an ethical manner that placed clients’ interests at the heart of the advice and service they gave. Chartered Broker Status is evidence to the commitments made and still continuing to be made by all the team.”

What Millennium Insurance did to achieve this status? 

All the senior executive management have always had a strong belief in adopting and delivering good business practices and were fully commitment to encourage all staff to study for professional qualifications which are aligned with the Financial Services Authority (FSA)’s focus on the importance of the fair treatment of customers, elements of which are reflected in the requirements of the CII Code of Ethics and Conduct. The Managing Director has been a Fellow of the Charter Insurance Institute (FCII) since 1995 a Chartered Insurance Broker and a member of the Faculty of Insurance Broking. Since 2002, Millennium encouraged all staff to join the CII and to maintain their professional studies, helping staff with the cost of fees, study materials and exam entrances.

Millennium made extensive use of the Broker ASSESS online education assessment and competency resource, and monitored all staff with various online (and manual) tests and training modules covering technical product topics, business knowledge and skills to apply that knowledge in their day to day activities. Millennium identified gaps for new learning purposes so that compliance with FSA Training and Competence requirements could be continuously reviewed and maintained. Millennium believed they met the criteria, so decided to apply in 2008 and have been very proud to have been granted this status, especially after learning that only 60 firms had achieved Chartered Broker Status.

NOTES ON RELEASE 

Direct Group 

Direct Group aims to be a leading insurance services provider to the UK financial services marketplace. This vision is based around a philosophy of “treating customers and partners as we would expect to be treated ourselves”. The high quality of service offered by Direct Group is supported by a scalable and robust business platform which not only provides Clients’ and Insurers’ with unparalleled quality of management information but also provides the basis for expansion into new products and new market sectors.

Direct Group currently operates on a business-to-business basis by offering products to financial institutions, corporates and affinities plus a range of services across the insurance industry. The services typically offered by Direct Group include product design, account development and training, policy administration, premium collection, claim handling, sales and service, insurer and captive reporting.

Direct Group Limited is authorised by the FSA no. 307332.

www.directgroup.co.uk

Millennium Insurance 

Millennium Insurance was acquired by Direct Group in June 2008 as a high-quality distribution division and now as part of the wider group of companies now offers a full range of insurance & protection services for financial services companies, from product design and point of sale implementation to premium collection, policy administration and claims management.

Millennium is a CII Chartered Insurance Broker, and handles a number of GI schemes under delegated authority from a range of insurers specialising in Household and PPI. As the new distribution arm of Direct Group it can handle all kinds of non standard household risks, plus a range of personal and commercial lines business.

Millennium Core Values are:

www.millenniuminsurance.co.uk

What is the CII 

The CII is the premier professional organisation for those working in the insurance and financial services industry. It is dedicated to promoting higher standards of competence and integrity through the provision of relevant qualifications for employees at all levels and across all sectors of the industry. Success in CII qualifications is universally recognised as a sign of commitment and professionalism. With 90,000 members, the CII is the world’s largest professional body dedicated to the insurance, savings and financial services sector. Its broad portfolio of education and qualification services is continually expanding to meet the changing requirements of companies and individuals across the financial services community.

www.cii.co.uk