The auction and valuation sector has lodged a significant submission to the Australian Parliament’s Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services as part of its inquiry into small business insurance. Drawing on detailed survey data from practitioners across the country, the submission provides a rare insight into how insurance markets are affecting specialised professional sectors such as auctioneering and valuation.
Auctioneers and valuers play a vital role in Australia’s economic infrastructure. Their work underpins asset markets and financial decision-making across a wide range of activities including secured lending, insolvency administration, taxation matters, estate settlements and insurance assessments. Auctions facilitate transparent price discovery, while independent valuations provide the evidentiary basis upon which banks, courts, insurers and government agencies make significant financial decisions.
The sector is dominated by small businesses and sole practitioners specialising in asset classes such as fine art, antiques, vehicles, machinery, livestock and collectables. For these businesses, insurance is not optional. Professional indemnity insurance is commonly required before valuation work can be undertaken, and public liability insurance is essential when conducting inspections or hosting auction events. As a result, the availability and affordability of insurance directly affects the sector’s ability to operate.
The submission prepared by members of the Auctioneers and Valuers Association of Australia (AVAA) identifies several structural issues emerging within insurance markets. Survey respondents reported rising professional indemnity premiums, stricter underwriting conditions and increasing coverage requirements imposed by institutional clients. In some cases, practitioners must maintain insurance limits of up to $20 million to participate in banking panels or major tenders, costs that can be significant for small firms.
Competition in insurance markets serving specialised professions has also emerged as a major concern in recent years, something referenced in the submission. Many practitioners reported that only a small number of insurers actively provide professional indemnity coverage tailored to valuation work. Limited competition can restrict policy options, reduce pricing discipline and make it difficult for businesses to obtain coverage suited to their professional risk profile.
The AVAA submission also highlights the growing importance of cyber risk as auction and valuation businesses increasingly rely on online bidding platforms, electronic valuation reports and digital client records. Survey results suggest many practitioners remain uncertain about whether their existing insurance arrangements adequately address these emerging risks.
To address these challenges, AVAA’s submission outlines a series of policy recommendations designed to strengthen insurance markets serving specialised professional sectors.
First, the submission calls for a targeted review of competition within professional indemnity insurance markets. Understanding why insurer participation has declined in certain specialised professions may help identify structural barriers that discourage insurers from entering these markets.
Second, the submission recommends examining regulatory settings that may inadvertently discourage insurer participation in niche professional sectors. Ensuring that compliance costs and regulatory frameworks remain proportionate may encourage more insurers to provide coverage for specialised professions.
Third, the submission proposes greater engagement between insurers and professional associations. Industry bodies such as AVAA can provide valuable insight into professional standards, risk management practices and sector-specific operational risks. Improved dialogue between insurers and professional bodies may support more accurate underwriting models and insurance products better tailored to professional practice.
Fourth, the submission encourages the development of clearer cyber risk insurance products designed specifically for small businesses. Simplified policy wording and clearer explanations of coverage would help practitioners better understand the risks associated with digital operations.
Fifth, the submission highlights the need to improve insurance literacy among small businesses. Many professional firms operate without dedicated risk management resources and may find complex policy documentation difficult to interpret.
Finally, the submission calls for a review of insurance stamp duties applied by state and territory governments. These taxes can significantly increase the cost of insurance policies that many small businesses must hold as a condition of operating.
As insurance markets continue to evolve, the outcome of this inquiry may shape the future operating environment for thousands of small professional firms across Australia, including those who provide the independent expertise that underpins the nation’s asset markets.
The submission reflects AVAA’s member-driven advocacy model, ensuring that the practical experiences of auctioneers and valuers inform national policy discussions. Through the AVAA Government Affairs Committee, members developed the detailed sector evidence to the parliamentary inquiry, allowing AVAA to ensure that policymakers understand how insurance markets affect specialised professional sectors and the small businesses that serve them.
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Interested In Finding Out More?
If you’re interested in AVAA’s member-driven advocacy on this issue, send and email to government.affairs@avaa.gov.au or telephone 1300 928 165. You can also stay up to date by following AVAA on LinkedIn, X/Twitter and Facebook.
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