Zing365, a specialist insurance learning platform, is calling on commercial insurers and brokerages to treat continuous professional development as a structural priority, arguing that the UK’s growing SME underinsurance problem is as much a knowledge failure among advisers as it is a behaviour problem among policyholders.

The company points to a recent report from the Association of British Insurers, “The SME Underinsurance Trap”, which found that many UK businesses continue to underestimate the value of their assets, neglect to review cover regularly and fail to account for emerging risks. The ABI has described underinsurance among SMEs as a significant and growing challenge.

James Read, managing director at Zing365, argued that the problem cannot be solved by directing businesses to review their policies alone. “Underinsurance is often viewed as a customer problem, but it’s increasingly becoming a professional knowledge challenge for the insurance industry,” he said. “Business risks are evolving faster than ever, and brokers need ongoing access to high-quality learning if they’re to keep pace with changing exposures and provide advice that genuinely reflects the risks businesses face today.”

The widening scope of commercial risk

The commercial insurance landscape has shifted materially over the past several years. Brokers who once focused primarily on property valuations and straightforward business interruption cover are now expected to advise clients on cyber exposures, supply chain disruption, climate resilience obligations, evolving legislative requirements and sector-specific liability questions. Each of these categories carries its own policy wording nuances, making the adviser’s role considerably more technically demanding than it was a decade ago.

Read made the point that professional development in this environment needs to be practical and recurrent rather than periodic. “Good professional development isn’t about completing a course once a year. It’s about giving brokers regular access to practical, up-to-date learning that reflects how the commercial insurance market is changing. Whether it’s understanding emerging cyber risks, evolving policy wordings or sector-specific exposures, ongoing CPD helps insurance professionals ask better questions, have more informed conversations with clients and deliver advice with greater confidence.”

Zing365 provides e-learning and live training through its proprietary platform, covering regulatory competence, insurance-specific technical knowledge, and leadership and management skills. The company is part of the Kinrock Learning group, which serves the broader financial and professional services sector.

Regulatory and market context

The push for higher broker competence sits within a broader regulatory direction of travel in the UK. The FCA‘s Consumer Duty rules, which came into full force for open products and services in July 2023, require firms to demonstrate that the advice and products they deliver generate good outcomes for customers. In the commercial SME segment, where many policyholders rely heavily on broker guidance rather than conducting independent risk assessments, weak adviser knowledge represents a direct channel for poor outcomes and potential regulatory exposure.

The FCA has not issued specific guidance on SME underinsurance as a standalone conduct risk, but the Consumer Duty framework provides a ready mechanism for supervisory attention if claim shortfalls become a pattern. Several Lloyd‘s managing agents and major composite insurers have also increased their focus on accurate sums insured over the past two years, partly driven by post-pandemic rebuilding cost inflation that widened the gap between declared and actual replacement values.

Zing365 did not release data on the scale of broker knowledge gaps, the number of firms using its platform or any measurable reduction in underinsurance claims among its clients. The case it is making is directional rather than evidential, and independent benchmarking of CPD outcomes in commercial insurance remains sparse. The underlying structural argument, that broader risk categories demand more rigorous and continuous adviser education, nonetheless reflects a widely shared concern across the market.

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