Before you embark on a journey towards becoming an insurance-sector Appointed Representative, or AR as it is known, you should really assess whether you have the skills required to make this new career choice – one in the world of self-employment – work for you.

If you work in the insurance sector, you may have heard the term Appointed Representative used, but not really grasped what this is. You may have also seen the acronym AR, but not realised it stood for ‘Appointed Representative’. If you are an insurance account executive and talented salesperson, who is searching for a new career opportunity, it could pay to get your head around the terminology very quickly.

Here at Gauntlet Enterprise, we have what we call ‘Tom Daley syndrome’. It means that we know we’re only as good as our last dive. We recognise that, if we want to keep attracting top talent in the insurance sector in the form of ambitious and high-flying insurance account executives, we need to continually stay on top of our offer as an AR principal.

Ambitious Leeds-based commercial broker and Appointed Representative principal, Gauntlet Group, has signalled its intention to fast-track growth and reinforce its professionalism, through the appointment of well-connected and hugely experienced ex-Towergate director, Andy Parkin, to the role of Sales Director.

Gauntlet Enterprise is a robust, innovation-led AR network that has gained huge traction and achieved impressive growth over the past few years, but it isn’t right for every account executive seeking to build their own insurance business as an Appointed Representative.

An experienced insurance professional, who puts the delivery of first-class customer service ahead of being part of a huge corporate insurance machine, has found a means of establishing his own business without losing access to the competitive quotes that smaller insurance brokers often cannot offer.

An Oxfordshire insurance broker who previously worked at Matthews Comfort & Co, established his own business as an appointed representative of Gauntlet in 2017 and is now providing commercial insurance policies, and some personal lines covers, to clients across Oxfordshire.

A specialist in insurance, finance and legal recruitment has developed a new income source by not sticking purely to the standard recruitment model, but analysing candidates’ needs and aspirations and assessing if a self-employed career path would suit them better

Leeds-based Gauntlet Group has partnered with a specialist trade credit management specialist with over thirty years’ experience in her field, to help launch Gauntlet Williams TCM, a Warwickshire-based business that helps businesses manage the risk of late payments and bad debts.

Dynamic Leeds-based commercial insurance broker and risk manager, Gauntlet Group, has demonstrated its unswerving commitment to the upholding of professional standards within the insurance industry, by earning Chartered Insurance Broker status from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).

Gauntlet Enterprise, the career vehicle for entrepreneurial insurance sales specialists wishing to start their own insurance business, took on 14 Appointed Representatives in the last twelve months to March 31, 2016 making this the fastest rate of growth experienced by the highly selective AR network to date.

The newly launched network for directly authorised brokers, Gauntlet Broker Partnership (GBP), is reporting huge support amongst insurers for its proposition and can already offer its network members access to over 250 insurers and managing general agents. Thus far, no insurer has declined to be involved and names backing GBP already include Aviva, AXA, Zurich, RSA, NIG and Markel.