In accepting the Overall Excellence Award at Strategic Insight’s Direct Life Insurance Excellence Awards, held yesterday at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, NobleOak chief executive Anthony Brown said customers don’t receive good value for advised policies.
“We do think the industry is broken at the moment. It does need fixing and I know there are big changes but, if you go through advisers, you’re not getting good value for money,” Mr Brown said.
“A lot of direct opportunities are great value for money, and lapse rates are high.”
Mr Brown also mentioned his support for the current life insurance reforms in his acceptance speech, further adding that it’s in the culture of the business to be doing the right thing by customers.
“We’re big supporters of the reforms that are happening, and I know that a lot of people in this room are trying to do the right thing and support the reforms as well,” he said.
“I suppose that makes this particularly pleasing for us, because we do think we’re at the forefront of doing the right thing by customers and we do think it’s in the culture of the business, and we really genuinely believe in it.”
As well as the Overall Excellence Award, NobleOak also won the TPD award as well as the Trauma – Rider award.
Other big winners during the ceremony included TAL, winning four awards including the Income Protection and the Customer Service award, as well as OnePath, winning awards for Trauma – Standalone and Accident Cover.
Last week, MLC announced it was expanding the distribution of its direct-to-consumer life insurance product via NAB’s 760 branches.
[quote=David from Perth]Yes sorry Anthony[/quote]
thanks, cleared that up. this story from Anthony is incredibly misleading. if he truly believed that then I think he needs help.
The colour of money makes people with little integrity look just plAin stupid
Who is this Knob! Direct Insurance, 40% lapse rate after 12 months, over priced garbage.
Don’t sugar coat it Damien.
Very disappointing to see this article and note how poorly informed and misleading he is.
It is commonly found that these poor quality contracts are more restrictive and more costly than properly advised protection plans. They are not underwritten, but rather just place exclusions on a product that is very limited to what the advised industry provides. ITs just a whole lot o profit for these direct sellers who in turn provide the most costly solutions of the industry, the ones that don’t pay! I have seen the results of these and tried to help where I have come across them when claims were denied. You sure need to read the fine print. Very hard to have a claim paid if there is a reason it does not have to. TAL may well offer great products but in this case their direct insurance allowed one family to lose everything.
“Value for money”, When ASIC release their findings into the life insurers probe, it confirmed what all adviser already know – “[i]there were higher claims denial rates in relation to insurance policies sold direct to consumers with no financial advice, compared to policies sold through advisers[/i]”, What say you Mr Brown to the value of advice.
Andrew you should remember me from your Hillross days, and to come out with that comment reflects that you still don’t understand or care about planners. How can someone who is totally uninformed, does a tad of research then buys insurance direct be more qualified than a planner? Next time think before you write and you will get more respect.
Do you mean Anthony rather than Andrew?
Yes sorry Anthony
[quote=Jzeee]NobleOak chief executive Anthony Brown needs his head read! Wouldn’t he realize that everyone in the financial services industry can see right through that comment. I would say that NobleOak chief executive Anthony Brown has colluded with his Industry Super mates to come up with such a ridiculous statement![/quote]
Let’s just label Mr Brown’s comments as conflicted. Very conflicted. And leave it at that.
Overpriced policies from Noble Oak, little upfront underwriting, high claim exclusions and clients not informed at time of purchase that premiums will be hiked up. So obviously as you admit you have high lapse rates. And you consider Noble Oak good value!! What a ridiculous comment. There is nothing Noble in direct insurance and CEO’s are simple after more profit and less claims paid. Like the FSC these direct insurance CEO’s get together and give each other awards for what is very bad value to the end customer. CEO’s like this should be part of a Royal Commission.
So Anthony Brown why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and give everyone a public example of a typical customers quote, policy inclusions and policy exclusions so we can see if every adviser on here could not find the customer better value??
You said it so why don’t you prove it??
This is the same Noble Oak whose policies come in much more expensive for many less benefits on nearly every like for like quote comparison? What a joke
Another advisor upset about losing overpriced commissions
Anthony Brown you are far too smart a man to be making these ill informed comments. They are just plain wrong. As an adviser, I have tried many times to compare the offerings for insurance from the online sites- including yours. I have NEVER been given a better deal for one of my clients as compared to a properly tailored, well structured and researched policy that I would advise a client take out. And pricing wise, I have only ever found the online sites to be VERY expensive.
Whoops! I meant to say all insurance should be underwritten at time of application NOT time of claim. No serious person would recommend nor take out a policy that could be declined when they most need it.
Absolutely agree with you Whistler. Infield underwriting helps consumers to receive practical advice about their potential insurability. At claim policies give the insurance profession a bad reputation.
What an uninformed, irresponsible, silly comment coming from a man who given his position should know better.
Anthony Brown…are you serious? It’s comments like these from executives like you that scare people off! I have worked with many of these “executives” over the years, and they are only in it for one thing….their bottom line. If they help the company they work for achieve greater revenue and profits, guess what…their pay packets also increase. Then you read about something going wrong, someone not being able to make a claim, and of course the executive has resigned and moved on to a new role, just to stuff up another industry or company. Saying that clients don’t get value for money is rubbish. Like someone else said earlier, as advisers, we rarely get paid adequately for the amount of work that goes into actually setting up a comprehensive policy. Direct policies should ONLY EVER be used for those clients that aren’t interested, or have health issues and are uninsurable. To make general, uniformed statements like this one, only means one thing – all direct insurers would love to get rid of advisers, so they can corner the market, without EVER having to go through all the regulatory requirements and an SOA to provide the advice, like all advisers have to!
And no counter-commentary from the author, no interview showing the other side of the debate?
The article is ridiculous, the author negligent.
Anthon Brown is ill-informed and from an insurance company that has few clients, no market share to speak of and trouble being reinsured. He has no idea about the havoc the LIF will bring to clients. And by the way, no one agrees to underwriting insurance at time of claim. This is just a ploy to rule out more claims. By the way, has anyone noticed the travesty in claim payments, or lack of payments lately!
Here’s news to you good sir, good advisers recommending insurance policies with commissions dialed out will ‘blow you out of the water’ every day!! You are just another commission driven lifie with a slightly different model.
Does not deserve a reply
I think we can all agree that underwriting should be done at time of claim for all the reasons that don’t need to be repeated here. I think we should perhaps look at Brown’s comment about value for money in the insurance advice area. There is a place for cheap death only cover through a direct channel. Assuming the applicant hasn’t lied on the application rolling out a deceased is hard to argue against at claim time. TPD and trauma are a totally different issue and I think advice for those products due to their complexity is essential. and as long as an adviser isn’t restricted to a limited number of providers and doesn’t have any corporate pressure to direct ( no pun intended ) to a house product the client will definitely be better off. so full marks to the advisers for value of advice.
But where do you draw the line in how much commission an adviser should receive for the advice in the value for money equation? I think this is where the question of value for advice sits. some clients e.g. the small case clients generally get excellent value for money because any adviser who meets all the regulatory requirements is losing money on each bit of advice. Large insured value, as opposed to structurally complex, clients may not be getting value for money based on income received vs effort. OK, cut me some slack on being very general here.
The way forward should be that all insurance products, direct and advised, are commission free i.e. a standard wholesale price across all channels. The adviser can then charge according to the actual effort put in and the inflated direct pricing exposed. then we have a true model to judge what is value for money.
Noble who!!!
Great click bait IFA- Truly your ‘Bec leaves Leighton, takes the kids’ moment. This always gets the comments flying. Truth is advised clients prefer the certainty of underwriting upfront vs the risk of underwriting at claim time. Direct is a last resort cover that does little to provide the certainty of advised insurance.
Is this one of those satire pieces, like ‘the onion’ writes?
Anthony Brown is yet another conflicted executive making assertions based on either his own personal views or as part of a marketing strategy. It is clients that assesses value not some ignorant fat cat sitting in his ivory tower. What Gaul Brown has to make such a sweeping generalisation in a public forum.
The only thing broken in this industry at the moment are people like you Mr Brown, aka Chicken Little!!!
Its the constant beat up by people like you with their disgraceful hidden agenda’s bleating ‘change is required, change is required’ that’s causing all the unnecessary mayhem in this industry.
None of my clients see anything wrong with this industry as it is because they get quality transparent advice that leads to successful claims being paid when something goes wrong. But hey, you know – that’s only ‘cos I put my clients first – not my hip pocket like you and direct insurance providers!
Not buying your opinion one iota!
Hi Anthony, how does providing cheaper premiums, better definitions, upfront advice, ongoing service and claims help qualify “as not good value for money” when using a professional adviser?
I am sure all these direct businesses would love to get rid of all insurance advisers who spend a significant amount of our time pointing out the deficiencies of direct and other inferior policies.
What a joke. These companies are so conflicted it is ridiculous.
NobleOak chief executive Anthony Brown needs his head read! Wouldn’t he realize that everyone in the financial services industry can see right through that comment. I would say that NobleOak chief executive Anthony Brown has a colluded with his Industry Super mates to come up with such a ridiculous statement!
‘lapse rates are high’ how is that a good outcome!! as most advisers know, a properly structured policy can improve discounts and premiums and have tax benefits at payout and payment, you will never get that advice from direct insurers. these guys make fools of themselves when they say things like that, you cater for a section of the market that doesnt want advice and therefore needs to accept the substandard outcomes they get. please dont try to dress it up in any other way.
http://asic.gov.au/about-asic/media-centre/find-a-media-release/2016-releases/16-347mr-asic-issues-industry-review-of-life-insurance-claims/
Yes, you are one of the good guys.
Obviously an insurer prefers to deal direct with the client so they can do them over in an easier fashion.
Direct insurance is more expensive and more risky at claim time – i.e. do your underwriting at claim time. Advisers will get on with looking after their clients. I’m sure Anthony Brown doesn’t get up to the hospital much to assist his customers with claim forms.
Hey Anthony, you should ask my clients – they would say the opposite.
conflict of interest much? Of course they would say that. They dont want to lose business to advisers