What 30 brokers told us about re-keying, admin and compliance

We spoke with 30 brokers: 21 completed a survey about their daily work, and 9 additional people took part in interviews or other conversations. The survey asked respondents to agree or disagree with statements about their work. This post sets out what came back.

The survey is a small group, and its respondents were not chosen to be a statistical sample. Read the survey numbers as signals from people who do the job, not as market-wide measurements.

All 21 survey respondents re-key the same client data

All 21 survey respondents agreed that they often have to enter the same client data into more than one system. Six of the 21 survey respondents strongly agreed.

The related statements scored almost as high:

• 20 of 21 survey respondents said manual data entry across several systems is a significant blocker to their daily work.

• 20 of 21 survey respondents said the lack of integration between systems creates unnecessary delays.

• 19 of 21 survey respondents said copying information between platforms does not add value for the client.

• 17 of 21 survey respondents said moving between systems such as Open GI, Applied and a CRM slows them down.

Only 5 of the 21 survey respondents agreed that their current systems support their work efficiently without major issues; 14 of the 21 survey respondents disagreed.

One broker at a large firm described it this way: "Switching between the different systems and tools can be a headache. [Open GI], insurer portals, Outlook, documents etc." The same person said the systems "force us to do constant data entry and recording."

Survey respondents say admin takes time that should go to clients

20 of 21 survey respondents said they spend too much time on administrative tasks rather than client-facing work. 12 of the 21 survey respondents strongly agreed, which was the strongest response in the whole survey.

18 of 21 survey respondents said more than 30% of their working week goes on repetitive tasks. 16 of the 21 survey respondents said renewal packs take more time than they should, and 16 of the 21 survey respondents said re-keying information from insurer submissions is a major bottleneck.

The interview notes show what that looks like. Chasing came up again and again. A manager at a large independent broker listed "chasing insurers for responses, interrupted tasks, not easy to track what is being done by who" as the slowest part of the day. When asked which tasks felt like busy work, the same manager said "chasing docs, manually adding notes to files when work has already been done."

A broker at a smaller firm named "pre renewal notices, renewal reminders, chasers etc." Renewals stall in a predictable way. The manager said clients can be slow to respond and "staff need to diary and chase which can be missed if someone is out." A commercial executive described a renewal follow-up that was forgotten, and the client was annoyed.

Survey respondents: compliance is understood, but can feel like box-ticking

The compliance answers are more mixed than the admin ones, and the pattern is worth looking at.

• 17 of 21 survey respondents said they clearly understand the regulatory requirements that apply to their work. Only 4 of the 21 survey respondents said they often do compliance tasks without understanding why they are needed.

• 18 of 21 survey respondents said some of the compliance tasks they do feel like a tick-box exercise with little practical impact on client service.

• 14 of 21 survey respondents said meeting Central Bank of Ireland audit trail requirements adds significant extra workload.

• 13 of 21 survey respondents said compliance data checks add significant workload to client renewals, and 9 of those 13 strongly agreed.

• 12 of 21 survey respondents said they believe the same check or approval is repeated in more than one place in their workflow.

So survey respondents are not saying they don't know the rules or that the rules are pointless. Most survey respondents know the rules well. The complaint is about the cost of evidencing them, often more than once.

A broker at a large firm put numbers on it: "A 5 minute customer call may need 20 to 30 minutes writing notes and updating systems." The same person described admin "expanding to fill more time than the actual advisory work we want to give." That is one person's account of their own week, not a survey result, but other brokers also said compliance adds time to renewals. A large-broker interviewee said "compliance documentation [is] huge on commercial side".

Not everyone agreed. One broker at a smaller firm said compliance was "not a problem." Firm size and line of business clearly change the experience.

What survey respondents said would help

Asked for one change, the answers were practical and specific:

• "Better document comparison tools" and an "AI risk review tool flagging issues early" (large broker).

• "Better task and time management" and "some sort of work prioritisation tool" (commercial executive).

• "Immediate self service for insurance docs - policy schedules and minor changes" (manager, large independent broker).

• "Anything that can reduce admin. Be it compliance, filing of emails, quote generation or market coverage" (large broker).

The survey asked about automation directly. 19 of 21 survey respondents agreed that automating repetitive data entry would improve their daily productivity. 16 of 21 survey respondents agreed that new technology could significantly reduce the blockers they experience. On AI specifically, views in the survey were less settled: 13 of 21 survey respondents agreed AI automation could reduce their low-value work, 5 of 21 disagreed, and 3 of 21 were neutral.

What this means for a broker's week

Three things stand out.

First, the time loss is mostly duplication, not difficulty. The same client facts are typed into an insurer portal, the broker system, a compliance form and a file note.

Second, chasing is a large share of the day and is easy to drop when someone is out. A reminder that lives in one person's diary is a renewal risk.

Third, brokers want more of their day for clients. Asked what an ideal day looks like, one said "more advisory work, less admin" and another said "less time on the phone to insurers, more time with client."

Broker survey, 21 responses, May 2026. Statements rated from strongly disagree to strongly agree. "Agree" in this post means agree or strongly agree.

Customer discovery interviews and other conversations with 9 additional people at several firms. Respondents anonymised and quoted with their words unchanged.