![\"\"](\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2013\/11\/Ray-Miles-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Ray Miles<\/strong>, Executive Chairman of Fortnum Financial Group, said creating an insurance APL based on comparative pricing and terms and conditions did not effectively support advisers in their client service proposition. Instead, Mr Miles suggested licensees should be looking to partner with providers who deliver open and transparent service at all stages of the client journey.<\/p>\n Fortnum has put this philosophy into practice, updating its own risk insurance APL using 18 selection criteria, which include:<\/p>\n In addition, unlike some other licensees, Fortnum does not charge insurers a \u2018shelf-space fee\u2019 to be included on the APL.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my view, creating an APL from comparative pricing and terms and conditions does little to inform advisers of an insurer\u2019s ability to service the needs of their clients when it comes to making a claim or, indeed, throughout the life of their policy,\u201d Mr Miles said.<\/p>\n He told riskinfo that while features and benefits were important, there was already a significant amount of research available in the market to allow advisers to compare offers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we wanted to find out was what happens at claim time? What level of service will the client receive once they\u2019re on an insurer\u2019s books?<\/p>\n \u201cFortnum\u2019s new set of criteria focuses on the client and the type of service they are likely to receive from an insurer,\u201d Mr Miles said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn effect, this new APL provides a tool to separate insurers on the basis of their accountability to our clients. Armed with this APL, our advisers are well placed to offer their clients a range of products from insurers whose quality service reflects our own high standards.\u201d<\/p>\n To develop its insurance APL, Fortnum appointed Col Fullagar<\/strong>, Principal of Integrity Resolutions, a firm which provides life insurance dispute resolution services to claimants, policy owners and insurers. Over a period of six months, Mr Fullagar used his expertise to build an APL assessment framework based on insurers\u2019 services and facilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThis model is about keeping the insurers accountable to their own standards. The APL is open to any insurer, provided they can meet the criteria. If they meet the first 10, they become \u2018Approved\u2019; to be a \u2018Preferred\u2019 insurer they need to meet a further 8 criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Fullagar also explained that unlike other APL models, Fortnum\u2019s insurance partners were subject to daily reviews:<\/p>\n \u201cAt any time, if an adviser believes an insurer is not living up to the criteria, or they\u2019re failing to deliver service in line with their service standards, they can report that to the dealer group who will take it up with the insurer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives the power back to the individual adviser, through their dealer group. If an adviser has an issue, they don\u2019t have to take it up with the insurer on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortnum’s ‘Preferred’ insurers:<\/strong><\/p>\n Fortnum’s ‘Approved’ insurers:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Licensees should be placing a greater value on an insurer\u2019s ability to pay claims and support clients when determining which offers to add to their approved product list (APL), one dealer head has argued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8294,6,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-claims","category-dealer-groups","category-products","category-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23666","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
… this new APL provides a tool to separate insurers on the basis of their accountability to our clients<\/h6>\n
It gives the power back to the individual adviser<\/h6>\n
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