Travel Insurance

eskbanker

Voyager2002 said:

Did you buy your travel insurance from a business registered or operating in the UK? The names that you give sound American, but what counts is whether or not your purchase was from a British business. If you bought from a US insurer then there is little to be done other than contacting the Better Business Bureau in the town where that insurer is based.

It looks like Switched On is a brand of a Gibraltar company who do appear to have FCA authorisation:

Switched On InsuranceTM is a trading name of Taurus Insurance Services Limited, www.taurus.gi, which is an insurance intermediary authorised and regulated in Gibraltar by the Financial Services Commission under Permission Number 5566 and authorised to passport general insurance intermediary services into the UK. We are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK under registration number 444830. These details can be checked on the Financial Services Register by visiting www.fca.org.uk or by contacting the Financial Conduct Authority on 0800 111 6768.

but, like many insurers, they outsource claims handling to a third party, hence the other names mentioned by OP.  I believe that it's the insurer who's still legally on the hook though, so for complaints and escalation purposes, these should go to the regulated entity rather than the unregulated claims 'assistance' company....

Edit: didn't pick up on the 'intermediary' reference, next post is a much better-informed and more accurate answer!

DullGreyGuy

eskbanker said:

Voyager2002 said:

Did you buy your travel insurance from a business registered or operating in the UK? The names that you give sound American, but what counts is whether or not your purchase was from a British business. If you bought from a US insurer then there is little to be done other than contacting the Better Business Bureau in the town where that insurer is based.

It looks like Switched On is a brand of a Gibraltar company who do appear to have FCA authorisation:

Switched On InsuranceTM is a trading name of Taurus Insurance Services Limited, www.taurus.gi, which is an insurance intermediary authorised and regulated in Gibraltar by the Financial Services Commission under Permission Number 5566 and authorised to passport general insurance intermediary services into the UK. We are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK under registration number 444830. These details can be checked on the Financial Services Register by visiting www.fca.org.uk or by contacting the Financial Conduct Authority on 0800 111 6768.

but, like many insurers, they outsource claims handling to a third party, hence the other names mentioned by OP.  I believe that it's the insurer who's still legally on the hook though, so for complaints and escalation purposes, these should go to the regulated entity rather than the unregulated claims 'assistance' company....

They are not an insurer, as per the "intermediary" that you quoted and the lack of being registered with the PRA. They are a coverholder or MGA (depending on if you like the UK or US term better) where an insurer has delegated their authority to write business on their behalf within certain defined parameters. 

The policy actually has 3 different insurers depending on the section; DAS provide Legal Expenses, Liberty Mutual provide Financial Failure and the rest of the Policy is provided by Great Lakes (London Branch).

Most claims management companies will be FCA regulated just like the coverholder. 

The OP should follow the complaints process as outlined in their policybook, in this case Great Lakes have delegated complaints handling to the coverholder, the other two insurers havent so complaints about those sections go to the insurer. 

Great Lakes, as the capacity provider, will ultimately be on the hook for any claims payments due, any compensation due to mishandling or other exgratia payments almost certainly will be covered by Switched On. Great Lakes as a capacity provider are acting as close as possible to being a reinsurer as per their parent company whilst actually being an insurer but only via coverholders. There are some regulatory differences but operationally they are very close.