{"id":16340,"date":"2012-07-18T11:36:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T01:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=16340"},"modified":"2012-07-18T11:36:13","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T01:36:13","slug":"direct-insurance-friend-or-foe-to-advisers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2012\/07\/18\/direct-insurance-friend-or-foe-to-advisers\/","title":{"rendered":"Direct Insurance – Friend or Foe to Advisers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vote<\/a><\/p>\n

The continuing growth\u00a0of the direct insurance market has raised concerns within elements of the adviser community about whether their services may become redundant over time.<\/p>\n

Our latest poll question asks:<\/p>\n

Are you concerned that\u00a0increasing direct insurance sales will have an adverse impact on the future growth and profitability of your advice practice?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The question of whether direct insurance is a friend or foe to financial advisers has been under discussion for some time now, but has been flamed by recent reports of the continuing growth of this market sector (see: Insurers Should Not Ignore Direct market Growth<\/a>).\u00a0 Some advisers see the growth of direct insurance\u00a0sales as direct and long term threat\u00a0to the personal advice services and solutions they currently deliver.<\/p>\n

Advisers who do not see direct insurance as a threat believe that either their own business model serves a different consumer segment, or that a prospective client who holds a direct insurance policy has already shown commitment to the need for life insurance and is more likely to consider revised and\/or additional\u00a0solutions appropriate to their needs.<\/p>\n

The debate over whether personal advice and direct insurance solutions can co-exist over the long term means most advisers will pause at some point to consider the question of how they currently add value to the client relationship, and what that value represents.\u00a0 A simple example is where\u00a0personal advice can assist clients appreciate that taking out a $300,000 death-only life insurance contract to cover a mortgage may only represent a small element of the broader protection coverage they need.<\/p>\n

While there may\u00a0exist a proportion of the community whose total insurance and protection needs can be fully covered by direct insurance solutions, advisers would still be\u00a0asking their prospective clients\u00a0whether those product solutions provide the most appropriate\u00a0pricing\u00a0and policy\u00a0definitions, including potential pre-existing conditions and other exclusions.<\/p>\n

How do you respond to\u00a0this question when taking into account\u00a0your own client value\u00a0proposition and when considering the future potential of your\u00a0advice practice?\u00a0 Let us know what you think…<\/p>\n

\"Vote<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The continuing growth\u00a0of the direct insurance market has raised concerns within elements of the adviser community about whether their services may become redundant over time. Our latest poll question asks: Are you concerned that\u00a0increasing direct insurance sales will have an adverse impact on the future growth and profitability of your advice practice?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,49,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general","7":"category-polls","8":"category-products"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}