I have a confession to make – I find General Elections fascinating. I know this puts me in a small minority of the population but we all have our crosses to bear.

I’ve forced myself to analyse why and I think it comes down to two things: the ‘head’ reason is that government actions can and do have a significant impact on you/your family’s life (just ask the Greeks!). The ‘heart’ one for me is the fascination I feel in witnessing this huge national sales pitch, extending across the whole of the UK, 24/7 – it’s like a time-constrained war with 650 mini-battles to be won and success or failure being so finely balanced – who would have thought that a Granny going out for bread in Rochdale would becoming a defining moment of the campaign?

So you can imagine, with all of my excitement why I find members of the ‘Apathy Party’ somewhat frustrating – we are all highly sophisticated consumers these days, we can all make preference choices on coffee, sofas and holidays, you would think we’d be able to make political choices too, even if it’s just the lesser of evils.

It also pays to make clear choices in the insurance world. The key part of a Broker’s job is to help their clients make the right choices around their insurance cover and provider – all insurers are not the same and clients won’t thank their brokers if they have a poor claims experience or the insurer they were recommended is facing it’s own financial difficulties – as with most things in life, price and value are two different things. With insurance, as in politics, you need to look below the glossy surface and examine the true character.

Insurers also have choices – brokers come in all sizes and quality levels and the two aren’t necessarily correlated. At Aviva, we have made very conscious choices of the brokers we wish to work closest with – they are all shapes and sizes but the common thread is professionalism in looking after their clients needs and the quality and trust in our relationship.  Treat us as a partner and we’ll do the same.

The key difference between the election and insurance choices is that brokers and insurers have to prove themselves day in day out – delivering on our promises and justifying the loyalty we are shown or our customers will walk.  You only get one chance every 5 years to make a choice on your government – a sobering thought and one that should make even the most ambivalent choose choice over apathy next Thursday.

Phil Bayles (Director: Broker Key Partners)