Complaining about an insurer or broker
In short
- Complain to the firm first. Insurers and brokers must run an internal dispute resolution process, and it is free.
- If that does not resolve it, the external scheme is free, independent and binding on the firm if you accept the outcome.
- Complaints are decided on documents. What you keep and what you ask for matters more than how strongly you put it.
The complaint path for insurance in Australia is the same whether the dispute is about a declined claim, a premium, a cancellation, poor service or something a broker did.
Every step described here is free. There is nothing to buy on this page.
Complain to the firm in writing
Send the complaint to the firm that did the thing you are complaining about — the insurer for a claim or policy decision, the broker or authorised representative for advice, service or placement. Both must have an internal process.
Say what happened, what you want, and by when you expect a response. Attach the documents; do not just describe them.
- What you are complaining about, in dated sequence
- What outcome you are asking for, stated plainly
- The policy number and the documents that support the complaint
- A request that the response be in writing with reasons
Escalate to the free external scheme
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority handles complaints about insurers, brokers and other financial firms. It is free to complainants, independent of the firms, and its determinations bind the firm where the complainant accepts them.
Lodge after the firm’s internal process has finished or has run past its published response time. The scheme will usually want to see that the firm was given the chance to resolve it first.
What makes a complaint work
Complaints are decided on documents and on what each party can show. A clear timeline, the policy wording that applied, and the firm’s own written reasons carry the argument.
Ask for the firm’s file notes about your matter. Firms are generally required to provide the information they hold and relied on, and the file notes often explain a decision more precisely than the decision letter did.
Where the complaint is about conduct rather than an outcome
Conduct issues — misleading statements about a product, pressure selling, or acting without authority — can also be reported to the corporate regulator. The regulator does not resolve individual disputes or recover money for you, so the external scheme remains the path to an outcome.
Both can be done. Reporting conduct does not pause the complaint, and the complaint does not stop the regulator being told.
Questions
- Can I complain about a broker rather than an insurer?
- Yes. Licensed brokers and authorised representatives are covered by the same external scheme, and complaints about advice, placement or service are within its remit.
- Does the external scheme cover business insurance?
- It covers small business complaints as well as consumer ones, within limits it publishes about business size and claim value. Larger commercial disputes may fall outside it, and that is worth checking before relying on it as the only path.
- Will complaining affect my renewal?
- An insurer may decline to renew for its own underwriting reasons, and using a complaints process is not a proper reason. If a renewal is refused immediately after a complaint, that sequence is itself something the external scheme can be told about.
- What if the firm ignores my complaint?
- That is a reason to go to the external scheme rather than a dead end. Firms publish a maximum response time, and a complaint can be lodged externally once it has passed.