Poll Results – New Risk Products Debate

The results of our latest poll suggest many advisers like the idea of redesigning risk insurance products from a claims minimisation perspective, or would at least like to know more details.

As we go to press, however, 47% of those voting in our poll have in fact rejected the left-field proposition advanced by Retender’s Ilan Lees (see: Call for Radical Re-think…), while 30% have given their thumbs-up. A larger than usual proportion of Riskinfo voters (23%) remain undecided, which is a sure sign that many ‘undecideds’ are interested, but need to learn more about how this new life insurance product proposition might work.

One comment we received in reporting this initiative last week suggested it may become challenging to easily demonstrate ‘proof of financial loss’ when it comes to claiming against the insured’s benefit pool, often due to the nature of many self-employed and other small business and/or consulting business income structures.

Other comments reflected on issues associated with the ability to objectively measure potential future income growth or wealth accumulation, and also on “…previous attempts to take the market in this general direction that have been tried before and were discontinued – at massive cost to the companies who tried to innovate and the clients who are still insured under those contracts.”

This is only the start of this conversation around a potential new way of thinking about life insurance products and how they can best serve the future consumer in a meaningful and sustainable manner.

It’s one of those debates in which there are no right or wrong answers or opinions, but where the debate itself will highlight to the industry that there may be new or different ways to solve its current woes in relation to life insurance product affordability, distribution and sustainability.

We welcome your own thoughts and ideas as our poll remains open for another week…