Which tech stack for insurance brokers: the 7 essential tools
The insurance broker profession has evolved considerably in recent years. Between managing an increasingly demanding client portfolio, growing regulatory obligations, and increased competition, equipping yourself with the right technological tools is no longer an option but a strategic necessity.
Yet, faced with the multitude of solutions available on the market, how do you build the ideal tech stack for your brokerage firm? What are the truly essential tools that will help you gain productivity, improve service quality, and grow your business?
In this article, we review the 7 essential tools that every insurance broker should integrate into their digital arsenal to optimize their daily operations.
Why invest in an adapted tech stack?
Before detailing the essential tools, let's understand why it's crucial for an insurance broker to be well-equipped technologically.
The challenges of digitalization for brokers
The insurance sector is undergoing a profound digital transformation. Clients, whether individuals or businesses, now expect immediate responsiveness and a smooth experience at every stage of their journey.
For a broker, this means:
- Responding quickly to quote requests
- Ensuring personalized and proactive follow-up for each client
- Efficiently managing deadlines and renewals
- Maintaining perfect traceability of all interactions
Without the right tools, these requirements can quickly become overwhelming and lead to costly errors, oversights, or deteriorating service quality.
The real cost of lacking adapted tools
Many brokers hesitate to invest in technological solutions, thinking they're saving money. In reality, the absence of adapted tools generates considerable hidden costs:
- Time lost on repetitive administrative tasks
- Data entry errors and inconsistencies in client data
- Missed business opportunities due to lack of follow-up
- Stress and mental overload related to disorganization
- Difficulties in management and strategic decision-making
A broker who spends several hours per week searching for information in Excel files or manually following up with clients could dedicate that time to business development or improving their offering.
1. Portfolio management software: the heart of your business
Portfolio management software constitutes the cornerstone of an insurance broker's tech stack. It's the tool that centralizes your entire activity and orchestrates all your business processes.
What is portfolio management software for brokers?
Specialized portfolio management software for insurance brokers goes well beyond a simple contract tracking tool. It's a complete solution that allows you to:
- Manage the entire lifecycle of an insurance contract
- Centralize all client information and their policies
- Automate recurring tasks like contract deadline reminders or payment follow-ups
- Generate documents and quotes quickly
- Track commissions and profitability per client
- Ensure compliance with regulatory obligations (DDA, GDPR)
Selection criteria for broker management software
If you're looking for portfolio management software, here are the essential criteria to evaluate:
- Industry specialization: does the software truly understand brokerage challenges?
- Ergonomics and ease of use: will your teams adopt it easily?
- Integration capabilities: can it communicate with your other tools?
- PSP (Payment Service Provider) integration: do you have real-time payment data for precise financial management?
- Continuous improvement: will the solution be able to grow with your firm?
- Support and guidance: does the publisher offer support during implementation and after production launch?
Why Korint stands out for wholesale and delegated brokers?
For wholesale and delegated brokers, the needs are even more specific. Korint was designed precisely to address these professionals' challenges:
- A centralized multi-distributor platform: manage your entire network from a single, unified interface
- Rapid deployment to your contributors: onboard your partner brokers in a few days with fully configurable journeys
- Real-time network management: track each distributor's performance and identify your best business contributors
- AI at the platform's core: use AI agents to automate your workflows, divide your processing time, and eliminate data entry errors, with guaranteed security
- Native Stripe integration: payment data available in real-time on the platform, or the ability to integrate your own PSP for maximum flexibility
- Automated commission rules: configure and automate your compensation grids without calculation errors
- Guaranteed compliance for your entire network: centralize KYC, traceability, and audit for all your distributors
- APIs to connect your ecosystem: integrate your business tools and share data with partners in real-time
The advantage of a solution like Korint lies in its ability to adapt to wholesale brokerage specificities, where generalist solutions quickly show their limits.
2. A CRM adapted to insurance brokers
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool often underestimated by insurance brokers, yet it constitutes a major growth lever.
Why does a broker need a CRM?
Contrary to common belief, portfolio management software doesn't replace a CRM. They're complementary:
- Management software handles existing contracts and policies
- CRM manages commercial relationships and new opportunity development
A CRM allows brokers to:
- Qualify and track prospects until conversion
- Plan and trace all commercial interactions
- Automate follow-ups and lead nurturing
- Analyze the effectiveness of commercial actions
- Collaborate effectively within the sales team
Essential CRM features for brokers
Not all CRMs are equal for insurance brokers. Here are the essential features to look for:
- Customizable sales pipeline: adapt stages to your sales process
- Automated follow-ups: never leave a prospect without follow-up
- Complete interaction history: centralized emails, calls, appointments
- Advanced segmentation: target your marketing actions precisely
- Commercial dashboards: measure your conversion rate and velocity
- Email and telephony integration: work from a single interface
Recommended CRM solutions
Among CRMs particularly suited to brokers:
- HubSpot: excellent for small structures, with a very complete free version
- Pipedrive: intuitive, perfect for small sales teams
- Salesforce: the most powerful for large structures with complex needs
- Monday Sales CRM: very visual and collaborative
The essential is to choose a CRM that integrates easily with your portfolio management software to avoid double entry and data inconsistencies.
3. An electronic signature solution
Electronic signature has revolutionized document management in insurance. It has become essential for any broker wanting to accelerate their processes.
Why adopt electronic signature?
The benefits are immediate and measurable:
- Drastic reduction in delays: sign contracts in a few hours instead of several days
- Elimination of printing and mailing costs: save on postage fees
- Improved customer experience: your clients sign from anywhere, anytime
- Enhanced traceability: timestamping and certificate of authenticity for each signature
- Secure archiving: all signed documents are preserved in a certified manner
A brokerage firm can reduce its subscription cycle by 40% by adopting electronic signature.
Selection criteria for electronic signature solution
Not all electronic signature solutions are equal. Evaluate these criteria:
- Signature level: ensure you have at least an advanced electronic signature (eIDAS compliant)
- Ease of use: the interface must be intuitive for your clients
- Available integrations: connection with your management software?
- Price per signature: watch for hidden costs on large volumes
- Legal compliance: verify legal validity for your contract types
Leading market platforms
Among the most used solutions by brokers:
- DocuSign: the global leader, very comprehensive but expensive
- Yousign: French solution, excellent value for money
4. An automated comparison and quote tool
Time spent comparing offers and establishing quotes is one of the biggest productivity thieves for an insurance broker.
How comparators transform your efficiency
A good comparison tool allows you to:
- Query multiple insurance companies simultaneously
- Obtain real-time rates
- Objectively compare coverages and exclusions
- Generate professional quotes in a few clicks
- Save considerable time on each file
For a broker handling 10 files per day, saving 15 minutes per quote represents over 60 hours recovered per month.
The importance of integration with your management software
Real productivity gain occurs when your comparator communicates directly with your portfolio management software. This allows:
- Avoiding double entry of client information
- Automatically transforming a quote into a contract
- Keeping complete history of proposals made
- Tracking your conversion rates by insurer
5. An invoicing and accounting solution
Financial management is often the poor relation of brokerage firm organization. Yet, rigorous invoicing and precise accounting follow-up are essential.
Why separate or integrate invoicing and business software?
The question of integration between your management software and your accounting tool is strategic. Two approaches coexist:
The all-in-one integrated approach: some software directly integrates invoicing. The advantage is apparent simplicity, but it can also lock you into a single ecosystem.
The agnostic approach: your management software (like Korint) automatically generates accounting files in standardized format (FEC, accountant format) and deposits them on shared servers. This allows you to work with any accounting tool or accountant, without technical constraints. This flexibility is particularly appreciated by brokers who already have an accountant with their own tools, or who want to change accounting solutions without questioning everything.
At minimum, your organization must allow you to:
- Issue invoices compliant with accounting and tax standards
- Manage payment tracking and client follow-ups
- Automatically synchronize with your accountant
- Produce VAT declarations
- Analyze your profitability by activity
Essential features
Good invoicing software for brokers must offer:
- Automated recurring invoicing: for your contracts with monthly commissions
- Multi-currency: if you work internationally
- Bank reconciliation: to track your receipts
- Deposit management: for large professional contracts
- Automatic reminders: for unpaid invoices
- Standardized accounting export: FEC, accountant format
Recommended tools
Among popular solutions with brokers:
- Pennylane: modern, advanced automation, native banking connection
- Quickbooks: comprehensive and proven, good for growing structures
- Tiime: French, simple and effective for small businesses
- Sellsy: comprehensive with integrated CRM, good if starting from scratch
Some firms continue to use Excel for invoicing. This is a costly mistake that generates error risks and considerable time loss.
6. An emailing and marketing automation tool
Marketing automation is still too little used by insurance brokers. Yet it's a powerful lever to develop and retain clientele.
Marketing automation: more than simple email sending
A marketing automation tool allows much more than sending newsletters:
- Fine segmentation of your base: target your communications according to client profile
- Automated scenarios: welcome emails, nurturing sequences, deadline reminders
- Personalization at scale: each client receives a message adapted to their situation
- Performance measurement: open rates, clicks, conversions
- Lead scoring: automatically identify your hottest prospects
Recommended platforms
For brokers, several solutions are particularly adapted:
- Brevo (ex-Sendinblue): French, very good value, perfect to start
- Mailchimp: intuitive interface, many templates
- ActiveCampaign: very powerful for advanced automation
- HubSpot Marketing: comprehensive but expensive, coherent if you already use HubSpot CRM
7. A call recording and transcription tool
Phone call recording has become an indispensable tool for quality and efficiency-focused brokers.
Concrete benefits of call recording
Beyond the regulatory aspect, recording and transcribing calls presents numerous advantages:
- Perfect traceability: keep proof of all exchanges with your clients
- Phenomenal time savings: no need to take notes during the call
- Team training: re-listen to best exchanges to improve
- Enhanced compliance: document advice provided to clients
- Easier follow-up: instantly find what was said during a call
A broker who spends 2 hours daily on the phone can easily recover 30 to 45 minutes daily by automating note-taking.
Recommended recording solutions
Several tools stand out in this market:
- Modjo: French solution specialized in conversational analysis, with AI to identify key moments
- Gong: very powerful for commercial performance analysis, native CRM integration
- Aircall: cloud telephony with integrated recording, perfect for small teams
- Ringover: comprehensive French solution with automatic transcription
Legal aspects not to neglect
Warning: telephone conversation recording is strictly regulated. You must:
- Systematically inform your interlocutor that the call is recorded
- Obtain their explicit consent
- Respect GDPR retention periods
- Secure access to recordings
Prioritize solutions that natively integrate these obligations to avoid any non-compliance risk.
How to build your tech stack progressively
Faced with this list of 7 tools, you might wonder where to start. Here's a progressive roadmap.
Prioritize according to your maturity level
Phase 1 - Fundamentals (Months 1-3):
- Portfolio management software (it's the absolute base)
- Electronic signature solution (immediate ROI)
- Document management / Cloud (security and compliance)
Phase 2 - Business development (Months 4-6):4. CRM adapted to brokers5. Comparison / quote tool6. Automated invoicing
Phase 3 - Optimization (Months 7-12):7. Marketing automation8. Collaborative project management9. Call recording
The importance of integrations
The true power of a tech stack lies in its ability to make all tools communicate with each other. Prioritize:
- Tools that offer open APIs
- Platforms with numerous native connectors
A well-integrated ecosystem can multiply productivity gains by 3 compared to siloed tools.
Measuring return on investment
For each tool you adopt, track these indicators:
- Time saved per week (in hours)
- Number of errors avoided
- Improvement in conversion rate
- Increase in customer satisfaction (NPS)
- Reduction in operational costs
A broker who invests €500 per month in their tech stack and recovers 10 hours weekly obtains a largely positive ROI.
Mistakes to avoid when choosing your tools
Before concluding, let's highlight common pitfalls brokers encounter when building their stack.
Neglecting team training
The world's best tool is useless if nobody knows how to use it. Systematically plan:
- Onboarding and training time
- Regular Q&A sessions
- Accessible internal documentation
- An internal ambassador for each tool
Underestimating hidden costs
Beyond monthly subscription, account for:
- Initial setup time
- Integration costs with existing tools
- Historical data migration
- Maintenance and updates
- Technical support fees
A €50/month tool can ultimately cost several thousand euros the first year.
In conclusion: your stack, your competitive advantage
The insurance brokerage market is increasingly competitive. Brokers who stand out are those who understood that technology isn't an expense but a strategic investment.
By methodically building your tech stack with the 9 tools presented in this article, you give yourself the means to:
- Offer a singular customer experience
- Gain productivity and reduce your mental load
- Develop your revenue more rapidly
- Ensure your business sustainability against new entrants
Start with fundamentals (portfolio management software like Korint, electronic signature, document management), then progressively enrich your digital arsenal. Each adopted tool must solve a concrete problem and bring measurable benefits.
The question is no longer whether you should equip yourself, but when and how you'll do it. Because in 5 years, brokers who haven't embraced digitalization and artificial intelligence will likely have disappeared or been relegated to niche markets.
Your tech stack is your armor in the daily commercial battle. Equip yourself intelligently, and you'll dominate your market.