BT Financial Group (BT) has staked its claim in the IFA market with the launch of its newly-branded BT Insurance product and services offering for advisers and their clients.
The new product and services package has taken BT three years to bring to the market, involving input from hundreds of BT staff and independent advisers. According to BT’s Head of Life Insurance, Phil Hay, this new offer is based on a foundation of four pillars which serve to create an ‘end-to-end service model’ intneded to clearly differentiate BT Insurance from its competitors. The four pillars are:
- Technology
- Service
- Product
- Business Partnerships
In speaking with riskinfo, Mr Hay highlighted a number of key elements across these four pillars that he believes will differentiate the BT Insurance proposition from its competitors, including:
- The adviser/client appointment. A unique range of options for advisers in meetings with clients that will allow them to access the newest application technology and sales tools such as BT’s LifeSAVER+ simulation tool, which looks at customers’ life stages and shows how insurance can help different people at different times throughout their lives.
- The insurance application. Mr Hay says BT Insurance’s new LifeCENTRAL+ quotation and application tool is already seeing up to 40% of cases using this system receive ‘on the spot’ underwriting decisions.
- Utilisation of an in-house Chief Medical Officer, whose ‘customer-centric’ brief includes consulting with and serving clients and their doctors as well as the financial adviser.
- New product range. Core products within the new BT Protection Plans range have been rated in the top quartile by a leading research house.
- Superannuation options. Mr Hay stresses the flexibility that has been built into the product construct in order to allow the adviser maximum flexibility to split insurances inside and outside super under the one policy.
- Guaranteed upgrades passed back for all future BT Protection Plans enhancements, but also applicable for clients holding existing BT Life Protection Plan policies.
- Ongoing service. BT reports its LifeCENTRAL online portal ‘… provides real time 24/7 access to advisers to information on their clients applications and inforce data.’
- Tele Claims service. Launched in 2010. Mr Hay said 25% of all income protection claims handled via BT’s Tele Claims service are accepted without the client needing to complete a claim form or requiring the client’s signature.
- Rehabilitation services. Mr Hay said BT’s advanced rehabilitation services assist its clients receiving Income Protection claim benefits across physical, vocational and psychological needs.
Remuneration
As well as offering a standard commission structure, BT is offering two new adviser remuneration options:
- An Advice Service Fee
- An Insurance Administration Fee
The Advice Service Fee option comprises:
- An upfront fee which is paid in entirety in the first year
- An ongoing fee which is paid from year 2 onwards
These fees are able to be negotiated between the adviser and the customer and the ongoing fee is able to be increased with CPI. The fee is disclosed to the customer each year on renewal.
The percentage-based Insurance Administration fee option allows the adviser to set a ‘dial up’ fee percentage from 0% to 30%. This negotiated amount is then added into the customers premium and charged as one amount. BT says this will allow the adviser to ‘dial up’ the premium depending on the effort required for the customer.
15 of the top 50 dealer groups in Australia have already placed the new BT Protection Plans product suite on their approved lists
Mr Hay said the new BT Insurance proposition has hit the ground running, revealing that 15 of the top 50 dealer groups in Australia have already placed the new BT Protection Plans product suite on their approved lists.
In addition to being offered as a new stand alone insurance solution to the independent adviser market, the new product package has also been integrated into the BT Wrap and SuperWrap platforms. It has also been branded for distribution within the St George Bank network.
In summarising how the new BT Insurance package differentiates itself from its competitors, Mr Hay said that instead of structuring an offer that required independent advisers to fit in with how BT does business, BT has focussed on building an end-to-end solution that instead fits in with how the adviser conducts their business.
