- Men Most Likely to Research Life Insurance;
- AMP Job Cuts;
- Count Opens Door for Accountants to Provide Advice;
- XPLAN Remains Top Rated Advice Software
Men Most Likely to Research Life Insurance
Australian men are more than twice as likely as women to search for life insurance, according to research by comparison website lifeinsurancefinder.com.au
The investigation trawled through over 15,000 enquiries to the lifeinsurancefinder.com.au site for different life insurance product types over the past two years and found the majority of enquiries were from men.
Despite a slight shift from 2012 to 2013, more than two in every three enquiries (70 %) were made by men in 2013, while less than one-third (30 percent) came from women. In 2012, there were over 71 percent of life insurance enquiries we from men.
Money expert at lifeinsurancefinder.com.au, Michelle Hutchison, said she was concerned by the apparent disinterest in life insurance from women.
“Men often become concerned about providing for their family as they start having children and have more financial commitments like a mortgage.
“However, with many women also providing financially for their families, it’s a real concern that they are ignoring the risk of losing that income if something was to happen to them,” she said.
AMP Job Cuts
The Financial Services Union (FSU) has warned that hundreds of AMP employees are set to lose their jobs as the company outsources some of its administration functions.
Speaking to ABC Melbourne Local Radio, FSU secretary, Leon Carter, said AMP was expected to make an announcement on the types of roles and the number of employees impacted by the first week of April.
The FSU is currently preparing an information kit for AMP employees who may be affected and says it has been consulting with employees about what the changes may mean for them.
A spokesperson for AMP said: “Like many businesses, we outsource some parts of our non-customer facing operations where it makes business sense to do so. Our partner in India will do administration processing work for a number of AMP products and this includes payments and some of the administration of these products. The details are yet to be finalised but there will be no impact to our call centre staff, who are based here in Australia and will continue to be so. This decision is in line with AMP’s focus on improving efficiencies and reducing costs so we can provide more choice and flexibility to our customers.”
Count Opens Door for Accountants to Provide Advice
Accountants who want to provide financial advice to their clients now have the choice of two licensing solutions from Count Financial.
The dealer group is offering a mid-level authorisation, allowing accountants to provide SMSF and strategic insurance advice, as well as a full-scale authorisation which enables the provision of comprehensive financial advice. The licensing offers were developed in response to the removal of the exemption which allowed accountants to provide certain types of financial advice to clients without having to comply with specific Australian financial services licensing conditions.
Count CEO, David Lane, said the solution provides accountants impacted by the removal of the exemption with flexible options, enabling a smooth transition to the new regime and providing them with the opportunity to grow their business.
“What’s great about our solution is that the two options cater for firms who aren’t yet ready to provide full financial advice but recognise the importance of choosing the right solution and establishing a platform for future business growth, along with those that want to provide comprehensive financial advice to clients. The solution also provides flexibility to enable an accounting firm to have individual accountants within the firm choose the authorisation option that is right for them – not all accountants within the firm need to choose the same option,” Mr Lane said.
XPLAN Remains Top Rated Advice Software
Investment Trends has once again named XPLAN as the top rated Australian planning application.
Now in its ninth year, the Investment Trends 2013 Financial Planning Software Report benchmarked a range of planning applications and software available to financial advisers in Australia.
XPLAN achieved the highest benchmark score for any financial planning application in the seven years of the Investment Trends Planning Software Report. Coin and AdviserNETgain were the next best applications as determined by the report.
Investment Trends’ Analyst, Ian Webster, said that providers were now looking to develop enhancements that focus on client engagement.
“Vendors have moved on from FOFA to refresh application interfaces, mobile functionality development and client engagement. Vendors are trying to improve planning efficiency by connecting planners and clients to practice workflow wherever they are.”
