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.
The commercial insurance distribution chain often has two intermediaries rather than one, and their roles are not interchangeable. The retail broker owns the client relationship: it gathers needs, advises on cover, runs the competition, places the risk where it has access, handles endorsements and supports claims. The wholesale broker has no end clients and gives the retail broker access to markets it cannot reach alone, the surplus lines market, the London market, specialty capacity. The practical consequence for the buyer has two parts. Remuneration is split between the two intermediaries, so total commission is higher than on a direct placement, a gap the access obtained must justify. And the duty to advise falls on the retail broker, the only one in contact with the client, whatever share of the technical work was done upstream. European distribution rules therefore address it first.
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.
retail broker, courtier direct, courtier de proximité, intermédiaire de détail