There was significant reader interest this week in Adviser Ratings’ announcement of its 2023 awards for the most trusted life insurers…
Technology and ratings firm, Adviser Ratings, has announced its life insurance Adviser Choice awards, which it says reveals the industry’s most trusted retail life insurers.
Adviser Ratings says that PPS Mutual took the top spot, while Neos, Zurich, Metlife, TAL, Clearview and Onepath all received positive satisfaction scores from advisers.
The awards assigns ratings to insurers across six core areas, based on more than 3,000 adviser comments.
The category winners are:
- Best Retail Life Insurer – PPS Mutual (Finalists: NEOS and Zurich)
- Ease of Underwriting – NEOS (Finalists: PPS Mutual and ClearView)
- Best Platform Functionality – NEOS (Finalists: Zurich and PPS Mutual)
- Competitiveness of Product – PPS Mutual (Finalists: NEOS and TAL)
- Comprehensiveness of Modules – PPS Mutual (Finalists: NEOS and MetLife)
- Best Adviser Support – NEOS (Finalists: PPS Mutual and Zurich)
- Best Claims Handling – NEOS (Finalists: PPS Mutual and Zurich)
- Most Consistent Retail Life Insurer – Zurich Insurance Group
- Most Improved Retail Life Insurer – TAL
…1,200 advisers now write the bulk of risk volume…
The firm also notes that one of its key insights was that just 1,200 advisers now write the bulk of risk volume.
Adviser Ratings CEO Angus Woods says that with more than half of retail life insurance still sold by advisers “…this temperature check shows how the insurance industry can grow and adapt to the changing market.”
He says the firm’s deep dive “…highlights key areas of opportunity for insurers, whose new business volumes have suffered as a result of the adviser exodus. Pleasingly, some green shoots in quarter one of this year are showing as non-specialised advisers start to entertain re-entering life insurance as a core solution for their clients.”
The firm confirmed it has also has also recently acquired independent data company, the Beddoes Institute (see: Adviser Ratings Acquires Data Firm).
“Beddoes’ focus on data, insights and growth opportunities within the life insurance industry pairs … well with Adviser Ratings’ existing suite of products,” Woods says.
Article states, “1,200 advisers now write the bulk of risk volume”.
Well, I hope the life companies are looking at that number and shaking in their Gucci boots. The life companies, you remember them . . . the ones who sat quietly and didn’t lift a finger to stop the 2 year chargeback provision or the commission reduction to a laughable paltry 60% (before tax and expenses!).
Yeah, that’s them – the life companies, who sat on their hands and deserted advisers when they were needed most. Funny way to treat your people responsible for your source of company income. Then they stripped out all the good features in IP and expected us to continue to support them with those putrid and compliance-dangerous products. Then they expected us to convince clients these new products were worth paying the same or MORE than the old comprehensive products. All the time premiums were skyrocketing on older BETTER products to force hapless clients into new, inferior, products. So much for the life company demonstration of ‘client best interest’. Sad beyond laughable not to mention morally bereft.
Yep, THOSE life companies – the ones that are going to need to check their statutory funds very closely and soon because that’s the only source of income they’ll have when the adviser force goes away forever and sales dry up completely. All because the life companies, in their inimitable wisdom, chose to do NOTHING substantive to keep or support advisers through the ridiculous and punitive changes that wrecked so many adviser businesses and personal lives. But that’s OK, executive bonuses continue, all is good atop of the gleaming ivory white towers . . . well, up to 2026 at least I’d proffer . . .
Awards for insurers? . . . yeah, right 🙁
Of those 1,200 I wonder how many more are losing patience with spending their time or a large part of their staffs practices time on the phone hoping to speak to someone, anyone in the call centre hell in hope find help when the computer says no. Those wonderful Improvements from all those saved dollars from LIF have definately been passed back to the consumer in the form of cheaper premiums and on more efficient systems to drive practice efficiency. Opps I almost choked!!!!!
Comments are closed.