{"id":31822,"date":"2015-12-01T18:41:44","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T08:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=31822"},"modified":"2015-12-02T06:48:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T20:48:52","slug":"insurance-sector-needs-to-shift-focus-from-death-benefits-to-life-and-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2015\/12\/01\/insurance-sector-needs-to-shift-focus-from-death-benefits-to-life-and-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Insurance Sector Needs to Shift Focus from Death Benefits to Life and Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

The life insurance sector needs to move away from focusing on \u2018death benefits\u2019 and should concentrate on improving the life and health of those insured as well as those unable to obtain insurance according to MetLife senior executive.<\/p>\n

In doing so insurers will not only increase the number of people accessing insurance but will reduce the social costs of insurance claims according to MetLife Asia, Chief Innovation Officer, Zia Zeman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As part of this he predicts that insurers will move away from selling products and begin to focus on selling services related to health and well-being in an effort to engage with those who do not have insurance and younger people who may consider it expensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, products are too complex but simpler products will cause a shift as they will be linked to honey pots that attract clients. This is about growing the pie of insured people,\u201d Zeman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good digital front end will trump an average adviser. However, a good financial adviser will help clients be themselves”<\/h6>\n

He believes these new forms of insurance will be delivered digitally but says there is a place for advisers who interact with clients instead of selling to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew consumers will interact with digital and a good digital front end will trump an average adviser. However, a good financial adviser will help clients be themselves,\u201d Zeman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancial advisers can dip into this area of health and wealth because it is about life and fulfilment and a great adviser does this type of work all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people live longer everyone wins. Making the healthy even healthier does not change the bottom line that much but getting riskier people and reducing their risks- making the uninsurable insurable \u2013 that is where the money is made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can grow the pie by targeting people with higher risk and targeting financial inclusion and using technology to allow more people to benefit from our financial services.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In related news MetLife Insurance in Australia will provide its new Fund Intelligence Dashboard to superannuation funds looking for data on marketing, sales, administration and member engagement after the completion of testing.<\/p>\n

\"MetLife's<\/a>
MetLife’s Australian CEO, Deanne Stewart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MetLife, Chief Executive, Deanne Stewart<\/strong> said the use of data by super funds allowed them to better engage with their member base through real-time digital analytics and insights.<\/p>\n

Stewart said MetLife was moving away from quarterly reporting with the dashboard providing interactive data to better manage group life costs and improve product design.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian superannuation industry is facing significant challenges, not just from regulatory changes but also from decreasing member involvement and engagement, particularly given the growing popularity of SMSFs,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to differentiate, funds are becoming more member-centric in their approach, with greater customer segmentation and more distinct, customised value propositions. Leveraging data will be a priority for those funds that want to be a disruptive force within the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a clear opportunity for group insurers to add value to their super fund clients by providing real-time data to inform evidence-based business decisions, all in the cause of helping funds remain agile in a challenging operating environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The life insurance sector needs to move away from focusing on \u2018death benefits\u2019 and should concentrate on improving the life and health of those insured as well as those unable to obtain insurance according to MetLife senior executive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,270,5,7],"tags":[4247],"class_list":["post-31822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-products","category-remuneration","category-services","category-technology","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31822","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=31822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}