I think I have identified a niche market for insurance products (the lost/stolen/destroyed type, rather than the life insurance/financial type), and the little competition out there seems to have very poor websites and the one I used had very poor service.

It seems pretty obvious that these are 'one man and a dog' operations working out of a home office, that have identified 1-2 insurance companies that provide insurnace to this niche market and just act as advisors (ie. they take the details, provide a quote, then sign the user up with the insurer) so my question is - how do I go about becoming one?

Do I approach the insurance companies directly? Do I need to be registered/licenced? I took a quick look at the FSA site but it was a bit unclear as to whether I needed to be or not, and also checked out the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) website, but that wasn't a fat lot of help...

Any ideas how this business works or where to research it? Also, what is this type of person called - are they a insurance broker? or insurance advisor?

Thanks,

Ben.