Suncorp Wealth Management Group (Suncorp) says that the low level of claims resulting from February’s ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires in Victoria proved the industry had more to do to educate consumers about life insurance.
Speaking at Guardian Financial Planning’s recently completed annual conference, Suncorp Group Executive, Geoff Summerhayes, observed that 173 Australians lost their lives in the Black Saturday tragedy, but there have only been claims made on 30 life insurance policies:
“At this stage, that means over 80 per cent of the people who lost their lives did not have life insurance,” said Mr Summerhayes, who added that the financial services industry has a responsibility to do something, to tell this story and address the chronic level of underinsurance.
Mr Summerhayes then referred to IFSA’s newly launched Lifewise campaign as being an initiative that will certainly go some way to increase consumer awareness and understanding.
“But at this time, when the difficult economic environment has made insurance a front-of-mind issue for many Australians, the personal relationship advisers have with their clients provides the best forum to talk about insurance and the optimum level and type of cover for their own situation,” said Mr Summerhayes.
