Retail broker
Intermediary in direct contact with the end client, advising, placing the risk and servicing the contract, as opposed to the wholesale broker which has no client base of its own.
Article 20 of the Insurance Distribution Directive (EU) 2016/97, transposed in France as Article L. 521-4 of the Insurance Code, requires the distributor to set out in writing the customer's demands and needs before the contract is concluded. In a two-broker chain it is the retail broker who gathers them, because only the retail broker sees the client. The two roles do not swap. The retail broker owns the relationship: it gathers needs, takes the risk to market, places it where it has access, handles endorsements and follows claims. The wholesaler has no end client. It opens markets the retailer cannot reach alone, US surplus lines, Lloyd's, specialty capacity. For the buyer this shows in two places. Remuneration is split between the two links, and total commission usually exceeds that of a direct placement, a gap only the access obtained can justify. And the duty to advise stays with the retailer, whatever share of the technical work was done upstream.
A French midsize company seeks a 25M EUR limit cyber cover in 2026. Its retail broker, with no direct London market access, goes through a wholesale broker that obtains capacity from three syndicates. The company knows only its retail broker, from whom the ACPR would demand an account of the advice given, and commission is shared between the two links.
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