Specialist life insurer, TAL, has announced it will be making an investment of $150 million over five years in a series of commitments it says will drive better delivery of life insurance products and advice to Australian consumers.
In confirming its long-term commitment to the retail life insurance advice market, TAL’s General Manager Retail Distribution, Niall McConville, said his firm appreciates the substantial changes advisers face (referring to the New Life Insurance Framework) and is committed to supporting them and their business through the transition.
Outlining five key commitments that will form the foundation of new ideas TAL is pioneering, Mr McConville commented, “Life companies and advisers need to become more efficient if we are to provide a better experience for consumers and we believe that an investment of $150 million over five years will provide opportunity to better deliver life products and advice to Australians.
Mr McConville said the additional funding will span the company’s customer, service and product propositions, and will cover commitment to five key areas of:
- Partnership
- Advocacy
- Value
- Education
- Investment
He added that TAL has launched a new website “…to be transparent and held accountable to our commitments. I would encourage all advisers to take the time to review what is being proposed and have their say. Advisers know their business better than anyone and the site allows advisers to submit and vote on ideas, as well as see what is already underway.
“The future may have some challenges,” continued Mr McConville, “…but in my opinion, if we all work together the future has more opportunities than challenges. The new framework calls on the industry to work collaboratively and we believe this is a positive step in working together for a better outcome for the industry and consumers.”
Click here to visit the TAL Commitment website.
Whilst I must congratulate Niall McConville and TAL on initiative seldom seen from insurance companies, I would like to play “Devil’s Advocate” for a moment and question whether any of the five key areas of commitment actually contain any focus on how to “sell” our product!
The five areas to say the least are broad and somewhat vague, but are they going to teach younger and less experienced advisers when they first sit down with clients “what to say after you say hello”?
Will any of the five areas teach them how to follow proven patterns of discussion with clients, uncover their concerns and fears, how to build and present a portfolio which is best suited to their needs, close off on the sale and most important of all, how to build relationships with their clients?
Finally, who will be doing the teaching? Surely it has to be experienced advisors who so importantly have been at the “coal face”?
If the five areas do incorporate all of these key issues, then my congratulations to TAL will certainly go up many notches. If not then TAL will have fallen into the very same trap that other insurance companies, dealer groups and even the AFA and FPA have done when promoting “education” as all bout product, compliance and regulation. Time will tell of course, but until I am proven otherwise, I for one will remain sceptical.
150 million, wonder how much will go into their direct products group?……………
I would say its best to be very cynical with this type of announcement. The 5 key areas don’t actually give any specifics and a cynic could say are just corporate speak for “we know we’ve stitched you up but we think we will save about $150 million from lower commissions and a 3 year clawback so we can spend this on making our business more profitable”.
A cynic would also agree with Risky above that TAL will be looking to increase their already sizeable direct offerings. Watch the other companies doing the same.
Loyalty is a two way thing and I think as advisers from now we cannot afford to be loyal to any of the insurance companies, only to our customers.
We need to start being tougher with insurance companies to stay afloat so that we can actually look after our customers in the future.
Lets be honest if TAL (and other insurance companies) closed down their entire State Managers and BDM’s it wouldn’t effect my business in anyway and I think we can all say the same. How many of us have to put up with useless visits from BDM’s every week to help them with their appointment targets out of a loyalty that hasn’t now been returned.
I would say to TAL to do this and together with the other $150 million dollar saving use the money to pay advisers more on their existing books and reduce client premiums.
Personally from now on if a BDM wants to see me they can pay me for my time.
If a company had to pay say $300 for their BDM to take up an hour of the advisers time they will quickly learn to make it time well spent.
What do BDM’s do again? im not sure, because is there really any need to meet with any of them? If they want to improve the bottom line, well there is an easy target there to cut costs….
If BDM’s are gone who will advisers hit up for drinks at conferences?
If the BDM’s are gone how will the cafe industry survive without all these “coffee meetings”…..
Seems we can all agree on where costs should be saved.
Here is a great one for a new poll Riskinfo.
1. Would you prefer lower premiums for your customers if you had to give up access to insurance company state managers and bdms?
2. Would you prefer a higher trail on your current books in return for giving up access to insurance company state managers and bdms?
3. Would not having access to insurance company state managers and bdms have any impact on your business or customers?
Come on riskinfo – we dare you to run it.
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