There was strong reader interest this week in our report highlighting that technology is one of the most critical factors needed to solve the equation that will lead to more advisers delivering more life insurance advice …
Attendees at a recent industry event have heard that one of the most critical factors needed to solve the equation that will lead to more advisers delivering more life insurance advice rests with technology.
…around 10,000 financial advisers steer clear of risk advice altogether
The InsurtechLIVE 24 Summit conducted in Sydney earlier this month covered a range of insurance and technology-related issues, in which one of the sessions focussed on the crisis existing within the advised life insurance sector, where it was suggested approximately 5,000 financial advisers in Australia identify as low volume risk writers and where around 10,000 financial advisers steer clear of risk advice altogether.
The summit was told only about 1,000 advisers maintain a moderate-to-high level of focus on risk advice, but that this disparity highlights what Risk Hub’s Marc Fabris refers to as “…the immense potential to dismantle barriers for the vast majority of financial advisers who are barely engaging with risk advice, if at all.”
…technology holds the potential to significantly ease the burdens faced by advisers
The ‘immense potential’ referred to by Fabris involves using technology as the catalyst for significant and meaningful change. In a panel session he facilitated, it appeared the panel shared a consensus that technology holds the potential to significantly ease the burdens faced by advisers, thereby enhancing the efficiency and appeal of providing risk advice.
This argument advocates that technology solutions not only address current challenges but also unlock new opportunities. …And for the 5,000 low-risk writers and the 10,000 financial planners presently avoiding risk advice, the message was clear, according to Fabris, namely that “…there’s a world of potential to make risk advice more accessible, more efficient, and more rewarding.”
Riskinfo will release more specific future reporting on some of the key technology offers, some currently under development, identified as solutions that will serve to achieve the aim of more advisers delivering more life insurance advice to more Australians.
In the meantime, advisers and colleagues attending the Riskinfocus 24 event series commencing from next week will hear from Audere Coaching & Consulting’s Stewart Bell as he shines a light on the ever-increasing range of new technology options that can help drive significant efficiencies for advice businesses, including quoting software, online fact finds, business tools, CRMs, pre-assessments and underwriting tech.
“Leveraging Tech” and all the other pampering around the edges with the deck chairs on the titanic will never revive risk. What will revive risk is good reward for effort to the adviser. I’ve said it dozens of times on these pages and the life companies continue to ignore it at their peril, so here it is again: raise risk remuneration to 100/20 and give it a 1 year responsibility period (max). THEN you’ll revive risk – absolutely nothing else will.
The present level of remuneration is one thing but the problem now comes with underwriters picking only cream cases and putting on stupid exemptions or conditions on policies that means it will not get purchased.
If I have more than one contact meeting with the clients for risk then its unprofitable so you need to reflect this in your underwriting. You have to take the good with the not so good to get the business folks
The problem underwriters also face is massive amounts of pre-assessments. When you are spamming every pre-assessment to 6 different underwriters just to tick your compliance box, how can they spend the proper time needed to look across the policy ? No wonder they want to deal with the cream, when they are just trying to get through the pre-assessments.
So when will the LifeBid software be on the market?
Comments are closed.