Insurance customers should use a broker to avoid confusion

Consumers who are worried about taking out an insurance policy that covers them for things they don''t need should seek the advice of a broker.

That is the advice of the British Insurance Brokers'' Association (Biba), which has said that many policies can seem confusing as they have become "more comprehensive".

This is because policies now cover all manner of eventualities which can make them complicated.

Graeme Trudgill, Biba technical and corporate affairs executive, suggested that a tailor-made policy is often the best solution.

He said: "The broker would be the best person to advise individual customers [on what cover they need] depending on individual circumstance. If people understand and are quite happy to live with the fact that some of the cover they have is not for full replacement value, for example, then clearly [the broker] will be able to tailor-make policies for those requirements.

"It''s a question of keeping the choice out there for everybody, between the belt-and-braces type of contract, against the bespoke contract…rather than the consumer putting aside money on a monthly basis."

According to research conducted by Fool.co.uk, almost 40 per cent of respondents did not know what their insurance policy covered them for.