- Underwriting service quality (34%)
- Claims services, reputation (18%)
- Product features (13%)
- Personal relationship with insurer (12%)
- Premium rates (9%)
- BDM support (8%)
- Other (2%)
- Communications (2%)
- Technology systems, support (1%)
- Institutional owner (1%)
- Licensee preferred list (1%)
- Websites (1%)
Advisers have said the quality of the underwriting service experience is the most important factor when it comes to choosing their main insurance product provider.
Responding to our latest poll question:
What is the most influential factor that determines the choice of your main insurance provider?
28% of advisers selected underwriting service quality as their key factor, followed some distance back by the next three most popular factors:
- Claims services reputation (16%)
- Product features (15%)
- Personal relationship with insurer (14%)
Both premium rates and support from Business Development Managers were the most important factor for 9% of advisers as our story goes to print, while factors such as institutional ownership, licensee preferred lists, technology factors, websites and communications have barely rated a mention.
… in order to win the support of advisers as their main provider, life companies still need to make sure they get the basics right
While the financial services sector is undergoing change in many areas (eg technology, regulation, client communications economic cycles and industry rationalisation) it would seem that in order to win the support of advisers as their main provider, life companies still need to make sure they get the basics right. That is, they must deliver on underwriting and claims, provide quality products (not necessarily the lowest priced) and do so in an inclusive, mutually respectful manner.
But at the top of this list for 28% of advisers is the underwriting proposition.
While underwriting outstripped the other key factors, the issue of claims was the one about which we received adviser feedback. Regarding the claims process, one adviser commented:
‘… surely how that turns out is the key reason for recommending an insurer’
Another adviser wrote:
‘… all the underwriting, communication etc is useless if the claims process and ease of settling claims is flawed.’
Do these comments reflect your own point of view? Our poll remains open for another week, so there is more time for you to add your vote and share your views…
