Wpływ nowej ustawy na rynek pośredników ubezpieczeniowych w Polsce
The impact of a new act on the market of insurance intermediaries in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The new Insurance and Re-insurance Activity Act, if adopted in an unchanged form, may certainly have a profound impact on the insurance distribution market in Poland.Apart from raising a number of interpretative doubts, the proposed provisions – which introduce, among other things, an obligation to evenly spread in time commissions for the sale of unit-linked life insurance – can effectively put start up insurance agents out of business. If the commissions are to be spread in time until an agent builds a sizeable portfolio of its own clients, earnings of novice agents may dwindle to the point that agents will no longer be able to support themselves from practising their profession. In the course of the legislative work on the act industry organisations put forward suitable proposals of changes; these, however, were rejected by representatives of the Ministry of Finance.The act also duplicates solutions known from the ...U Recommendations and Guidelines on distribution, by introducing a ban on paying remuneration to policyholders in connection with insurance for a third par- ty’s account, and in particular in group insurance. The policyholder will not be entitled to any remuneration and other benefits for offering insurance products or carrying out work connected with the performanceof an insurance contract. Interestingly enough, the ban on receiving remuneration or other benefits equally applies to persons acting for or on behalf of the policyholder. This, in turn, may effectively eliminate from the market intermediaries working today for many employers, known as multi-tied agents.The same provision prompts questions about the possibility of remunerating brokers who perform work for or on behalf of an entity seeking insurance coverage, because, in practical terms, they act for or on be- half of a policyholder. However, it is unlikely to assume that the drafters’ and, subsequently, legislator’s intention was to reduce the earning capacity of brokers who, after all, receive brokerage from insurers.Hopefully, further legislative work on the Act is to bring about changes that, on the one hand, will properly secure the interests of consumers and, on the other, will prevent a far-reaching disruption of the insurance mediation market.

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