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July 22: Follow-up: the contingent commissions fight blow by blow:     (Copyright Thompson’s World Insurance News)     Two of the biggest global brokers are now on opposite sides on the issue of whether it is proper for such commissions to be accepted.     Round 1, July 20: The Willis Group ran a blistering attack on them in introducing a law firm’s white paper on the issue run as a special supplement in the July 19 Business Insurance and covered on our web site July 20 (see other stories).      Round 2, July 21: Aon, which had earlier announced it also would not accept them, issued a release saying after much research around the globe it had decided to accept the various forms of compensation available.     This may include supplemental and/or contingent commissions in the geographies and client segments globally where appropriate and legally permissible, said Aon Risk Solutions chairman and ceo Steve McGill.     He repeated the company’s July 2008 testimony to the New York State Insurance Department and Office of the Attorney General that Aon is committed to industry-leading transparency and delivering the highest value for price in the industry on behalf of its clients.     "Our firm’s focus has been and will always be on doing what is right to serve the best interests of our clients."     Round 3, within hours: Willis counter-punches with a statement which includes saying: "Aon’s overdue and muted announcement, floated in mid-summer, should come as a wake-up call to all risk managers and buyers of insurance to re-evaluate whether their broker really works for them, or the insurance carrier.     "Offering opaque statements about doing what is ’legally permissible,’ another competitor has opted to put contingents before principle. Willis puts clients before contingents.     It said also with Aon retreating to a troublesome and ambiguous position on contingent commissions, Willis now stands as the world’s only insurance broker to refuse to accept contingents.     The statement added: "What buyer of insurance would take comfort in their broker adopting a minimum standard of what’s ’legally permissible’ to define their relationship?     "Who is really convinced that taking back door payments from carriers at the end of a year based on profitability and growth of a book of business is an example of, as Aon’s Steve McGill says in the company’s news release, ’doing what is right to serve the best interests of our clients?’     "Clients’ best interests are served when their brokers work for them, and only them, with standards of service based on ethics and integrity, not merely on what’s ’legally permissible.’     "Indeed, Aon’s announcement this week flies directly in the face of what clients want from their brokers.     In a brand new poll of commercial insurance buyers released by Business Insurance magazine on July 19, (the one in which the Willis supplement was included) 70%of buyers said contingent commissions represent a conflict of interest.     "This is what we have been saying all along: a retail broker cannot serve two masters. They either represent the client or the carrier, but they can’t do both."     The recent history of broker behaviour and regulatory oversight in the insurance industry is not a proud one, the statement said.     The permissive rules that have fostered rampant conflicts of interest have returned and, with them, an industry environment that’s headed deeper into a morass and bound for more trouble when ’legally permissible’ is the new standard of excellence.     "Our industry can do much better by its clients, and clients should demand better from their brokers."        Thompson’s World Insurance News P.O. Box 1027,  Waterloo, Ontario,  Canada  N2J 4S1 Tel: 519-579-2500 Fax: 519-745-7321 mpub@sympatico.ca THOMPSON’S WORLD INSURANCE NEWS , Canada’s only independent weekly for p&c insurance professionals, has been the industry’s most trusted news source since 1988.