The question I couldn't answer. And what I'd say today.

I had a call with the spouse of a broker not long after I launched UK Broker Support.

Her husband was developing the business — growing the book, maintaining the relationships. She was doing everything else. MTA endorsements, handling the accounts, responding to emails and WhatsApp messages at all hours. It was affecting her quality of life. She wanted out of the role.

All things I could help with. This should have been straightforward.

Then she asked me a question that stopped me cold.

"Do you have any administrative experience in an insurance brokerage?"

I froze.

My mind went somewhere unhelpful. It started cataloguing everything I had never done. I had never received flowers on Admin Professional Day. Never brought a coffee to a broker's desk. Never managed office supplies or scheduled a client meeting in someone else's diary. Never filed a physical document in a filing cabinet.

My mind searched its archives for what an admin assistant actually looked like and came up with an image that was, I'll admit, embarrassingly narrow. I stuttered something about eleven years of experience and a CIP qualification and trailed off.

She was kind about it. I was not impressed with myself.

I've thought about that call a lot since. What it exposed wasn't a gap in my experience. It was a gap in how I was framing my experience — to myself, before I'd even opened my mouth.

Here is how I would answer the question today.

I have never worked physically inside a broker's office. What I have done is this.

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What I have actually done — in eleven years, across three markets

I have documented thousands of client files — the chain of decisions, the attempts to reach clients by phone and email, the reasons behind every coverage change. I think whether a broker wins or loses a complaint often comes down to what is, or isn't, written in the file.

I have explained bills and premium changes to thousands of people. Why it went up. Why there was an additional charge. What an NSF actually means on a statement and why it happened.

I have prepared bordereaux, policy documents, renewals and endorsements, formatted them correctly and presented them to underwriters. I have built invoices manually — because legacy systems do not always talk to each other — and sent them to insurance partners, brokers and clients with a clear breakdown of premiums, taxes and sums insured.

I have administered thousands of policies. New business loaded, documents issued, renewals processed, cancellations handled, mid-term adjustments made. I have supported clients through claims — helping them report, gather documentation, understand what was happening and why it was taking as long as it was.

None of that happened in a filing cabinet. Most of it happened in systems, on the phone, and in writing.

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What back-office support in a brokerage actually looks like

The work of keeping a brokerage running is not small or simple. It just doesn't always look the way people picture it.

Insurance broker back office support in the UK is still a relatively unfamiliar concept to many founder-led practices — not because the need isn't there, but because most brokers have never had anyone to hand it to.

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Why this matters

I still think about Michelle — the broker's wife on that call. I hope she gets her evenings back.

If you are carrying a version of what she was carrying, I would like to hear about it.

What does the back office actually look like in your practice this week?

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Leif Skogberg is the founder of UK Broker Support Services Ltd, providing remote operational and back-office support to founder-led UK insurance brokers. He holds a Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation from the Insurance Institute of Canada and eleven years of experience across Canada, Germany and the UK.

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