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Insurance

How to verify an insurer or intermediary

The company that advertises the policy, the insurer that underwrites it, and the adviser who sells it can be three different firms. Check the one you are dealing with.

Reviewed 29 October 2026 by the WiT Money editorial team. This is general information, not a recommendation from a named adviser.

Key points

  • Use the FSCA's own search for an FSP number. Do not trust a number printed only in an advert.
  • An insurer's licence is not an adviser's licence.
  • A listing on WiT Money is not that check.

Short-term and long-term insurers are authorised to carry on insurance business. Financial services providers are licensed under FAIS to give advice or intermediary services. An administrator, a binder holder and a call centre can sit in between. The policy schedule should name the insurer. If it does not, ask before you pay.

WiT Money profiles repeat the names used in the published comparisons. They do not mark a firm as authorised unless that check was done, and on most profiles it was not. Open the regulator's register yourself.

What a licence does not mean

It does not mean the product is suitable, cheap, or unable to decline a claim. It does not mean every product sold under the brand is covered by the same licence.

Questions readers ask

Where do I complain about advice?

Start with the provider. Advice and intermediary complaints can go to the FAIS Ombud. Claim disputes against an insurer often go to the National Financial Ombud Scheme. Use the office that matches the complaint.

Related

Sources

Page updated 29 October 2026. A source date is the day WiT Money checked that page, not a promise the institution has not changed it since.