BT Financial Group (BTFG) will focus on promoting the value of life insurance advice and offering greater efficiencies across its insurance business in its efforts to minimise the impact of the Life Insurance Framework (LIF) upon advisers.
BTFG National Life Insurance Product Manager Scott Moffit said the group had spoken with advisers late last year about how it could respond to the implementation of LIF with advisers calling for business efficiencies that improved the client experience, such as underwriting, claims and back-office administration.
Moffit said BTFG would also promote the value of advice particularly around the need for insurance among Australians and the issue of underinsurance.
Part of these efforts would include simplifying products with Moffit stating “this fed into the issue of efficiency and made product adaptable to changing needs and able to transition through the framework’s introduction and implementation”.
“In our product ranges this has meant introducing feature such as being able to amend cover based on changing events without having to go back to underwriting,” Moffit said.
He said the discussions with advisers had looked at price but centred around value and not just cost, with a set of changing variables built into the price of BTFG insurance products.
“The discussion around costs was examined from a value point of view, which has become very important to advisers who stated that a ‘cheap and cheerful’ approach was not appealing to them,” Moffit said.
“We know price is impacted by many things – adviser remuneration, claims experience, interest rates – and we have factored those issues in and the discussion has moved to how we can allow for more efficiency now that adviser remuneration has changed.”
“At the same time how can advisers service clients as they have done so far in the past is part of our role as an insurer as well, and we are looking for more innovations in our claims model, such as tele-claims and rehabilitation programs, as well as simplified underwriting and ongoing product innovations.”
Moffit’s comments follow recent news that BTFG recently increased its Income Protection premium rates for the first time in five years.
