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Does a broker always negotiate in the insured’s best interests…
Does a broker always negotiate in the insured’s best interests… or could doing so deprive the insured of protections traditionally associated with insurance contracts?
- The decisions of the Rennes Court of Appeal (7 May 2025, No. 22/04207) and the Montpellier Court of Appeal (9 December 2025, No. 24/02590) have reignited the debate.
- In some cases, the courts have held that the presence of a broker-negotiated endorsement (intercalaire) may demonstrate genuine contractual negotiation, leading to the policy being characterised as a freely negotiated contract rather than a standard-form agreement.
- By contrast, the Orléans Court of Appeal (12 March 2026, No. 23/01190) held that the broker’s endorsement cannot be interpreted in isolation from the policy as a whole, and that any mismatch between the policy and the insured’s needs falls, in principle, within the broker’s responsibility.
- Does the broker’s endorsement provide an additional layer of protection… or could it become an argument used against the insured in the event of a claim?
A thought-provoking issue explored in this article