The skirmish between owned and independent insurance broker networks shows no sign of dying down. Smaller brokers, who don't own their networks, but who operate in partnership with independent brokers of similar size to compete for large and midsize commercial accounts, lay claim to significant advances in recent years.

The Big Three, on the other hand, continue to reassert the advantages of their ... well, bigness. "Marsh, Aon and Willis say they have an owned network around the world and common standards across the board, while we have a loosely-affiliated network, and that's a competitive disadvantage," says Toronto independent broker Greg Belton.

Belton, president of Hunter, Kielty Muntz & Beatty, is also chairman of Asssurex Global, a network of independent international brokerages. He's also the former chairman of Assurex Global's international executive committee.

Belton says Assurex partners match larger brokers in technological capability, having recently introduced an IT platform which brings multinational clients onto a common database. "That's a big step in the right direction," he says.

Accountability and response are also major points of differentiation, claims Belton, who says he hears, "to the point where we believe it must be true", that if Marsh New York, for example, asks Marsh in Chile or Italy to service part of an account there's always a debate about providing service." There's little response and "lots of push back," he hears from former Big Three employees who now work for independents.

"In our case, it's owner-to-owner," he says. "In my firm we have over 400 accounts that we service for partners in international business. You would not get that kind of accountability and response if you were dealing with Marsh or Aon."

"It's very powerful," he adds, "that I actually know the people I'm calling. I see them two or three times a year. It's not just a voice on the other end of the phone. That forces a high level of accountability."

Diana Devalcourt is vice president and international practice leader for Palmer & Cay in Atlanta, a member of the Worldwide Broker Network. A former employee of Marsh, she says the Big Three's claim that they have more control of their networks isn't true. "Not all owned-network offices are created equal," she says. "Some are less responsive; some won't have the expertise you'll need."