The Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI) has launched the inaugural ReCALIbrate program, which will provide $2,000 grants to five mid-career, female financial risk advisers to attend the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) Congress in November.
Notably, each ReCALIbrate recipient will also be paired with a senior female life insurance industry leader and have the opportunity to have two in-person or virtual meetings.
According to the body, the purpose of these meetings will be to provide a forum for mentorship, learning, support and advice to ensure women continue to engage with the industry and benefit beyond the event.
“CALI believes it is important to play our part to foster the next generation of female financial risk advisers to ensure a strong pipeline of talent and leadership while also addressing the decreasing number of financial advisers in Australia,” commented Christine Cupitt, chief executive officer at CALI.
Ms Cupitt further emphasised CALI’s passion for finding ways to make life insurance more inclusive so that the industry “reflects the community we serve”.
“Men outnumber women at industry conferences for many reasons, including juggling family and carer responsibilities with day-to-day work. We want to do more to create opportunities for women in our industry.”
CALI board member and managing director of Clearview Wealth, Nadine Gooderick, added: “Risk specialists play an important role in helping people understand their life insurance needs, secure adequate cover and, at claim time, get benefits paid.”
“Women have traditionally been under-represented in financial services but that is gradually changing and we want to do our part to encourage women to pursue a career in risk advice and foster a diverse, inclusive industry,” Ms Gooderick continued.
“We applaud CALI’s ReCALIbrate initiative and have a shared desire to encourage engagement among female financial risk advisers and foster the next generation of female talent. We look forward to welcoming the ReCALIbrate recipients to the FAAA Congress in November,” concluded Sarah Abood, chief executive of FAAA.
The launch comes after Integrity Life announced last week that it will no longer be writing new life insurance policies in its retail advised channel, with the firm clarifying that the decision was based on the dwindling number of advisers providing risk advice.
Ms Abood has also previously noted that she has seen figures that point to as few as 1,200 advisers around the country specialising in the area.
However, WT Financial Group chief executive Keith Cullen, in an opinion piece written for ifa, stressed that retail life insurance is more than an add-on to comprehensive financial advice.
“It serves as a financial bulwark for individuals and families, shielding them from unexpected financial adversities. Disregarding this critical element exposes clients to considerable risks,” Mr Cullen said.
He highlighted that new business in the retail life insurance market has contracted by 37 per cent over the past four years, and with constant regulatory changes that have made the provision of risk advice more difficult, advisers have departed the space rapidly.
“Advisers who sidestep personal risk insurance can inadvertently set their clients on a path strewn with potential financial landmines,” Mr Cullen reasoned.
“Without sufficient insurance, an unforeseen illness or accident can escalate a manageable situation into a financial catastrophe. By advocating risk insurance, we can steer clients away from these uncertainties and fortify their financial future.”
All this pontification from government and well meaning organisations never ceases to amaze me. It’s quite simple really. LIF rendered Risk Advice commercially unviable, so advisers simply stopped doing it. If Government agencies forced a 40% pay cut upon Bricklayers and Carpenters (as they did with Risk Advice), houses wouldn’t get built because tradies won’t do work that is commercially unviable. You would need commission levels to be set at a minimum 80/20 in my humble opinion to operate a marginally viable Risk Advice business.
The real irony of LIF is that it was invented by the banks so they could sell their “unprofitable” insurance arms to overseas buyers, who were the only options for a quick sale. They took their old “bangers” on which they had spent nothing since acquisition and polished the old dear with a quick scrub and a bit of paint – a government driven, ASIC induced, plan to halve distribution costs on retail life insurance. Advisers ? Don’t worry about them – they are just serfs in a feudal system..
Our friends, the non-bank insurers, lapped it up. Manna from heaven. Shareholder value & exec bonuses increased. NOW THE CHOOKS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST !! The banks have gone from selling insurance, but as they did with funding FASEA, tossed yet another grenade into the advisers room, and closed the door. Care factor NIL ! And those dummies who run insurers still think there is time before they go to Government, humble pie crumbs allover their mugs, AND ADMIT LIF was a mistake
So you do not want to print my comments that are accurate and historic.
No wonder the industry is in such a mess. You want to suppress the facts. Try again.
The life companies shot themselves in the foot from the time of the Trowbridge report designed to reduce commissions. It backfired so now it is a bit like a footballer starting a melee and then running around the milling group trying to pull the players apart. agents do not forget so CALI beware.
They way to get more into the industry is to make it worthwhile.
Reduce the compliance burden and increase commissions and you will be surprised how this will turn things around.
At this point government and industry have seen commissions as bad, LIF did its job to make things worse, and now the fruits of their labor are taking shape, life companies going under and possibly more to come, until such time broader changes need to be made, it’s not just a matter of including risk into your advice mix, as the compliance burden doesn’t equate to returns if any…
Ladies, RUN. This Life Insurance industry has gone to the dogs. It used to be lucrative until the insurers got greedy.
In a recent comment, an adviser was lamenting the fact that he was paid the equivalent of $30 per hour for risk advice from the initial meeting to the implementation. How will a mum juggle work and family on $30 per hour?
It’s all very well for people to talk up the need for insurance… why don’t these same people tell the insurers to: improve products, improve claims, improve turnaround times, improve customer service, maintain level true premiums and make it slightly less-difficult for advisers to implement cover?
CALI supporting the FAAA? Surely Ms Culpitt knows that the FPA/AFA backed the FSC who cooperated with the Liberals and Minister O’Dwyer to put the LIF legislation in place which has destroyed the Life Industry. CALI was formed after dissatisfaction with the FSC by the major Insurers and now Ms Cupitt is consorting with the FSC’s political alliances…..we do live in a weird world…..
This was always going to happen,you pay peanuts so you don’t get advisers