The corporate regulator’s ban on unsolicited insurance telephone sales is scheduled to take effect from 13 January 2020.
Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Mennen said the Hayne royal commission revealed many people have been taken advantage of by unsolicited telephone calls from financial companies pushing unsuitable products.
“This is an important step by ASIC in faithfully implementing commissioner Hayne’s recommendations and will help protect the vulnerable members of our community from unscrupulous product spruiking by banks and insurers eager to sell their own in-house products,” Mr Mennen said.
“However, the hawking prohibitions apply only to unsolicited telephone calls and meetings, and do not apply to other unsolicited communications.”
Mr Mennen said more work needs to be done to address digital era communications, such as email spamming, brochures or digitally targeted media advertisements.
Further, he said there is also a need for more robust requirements on financial institutions to report to customers and the regulator as to how they obtain and use personal information.
“Banks and large wealth managers have systematically targeted existing customers through unsolicited approaches in an effort to cross-sell their insurance and other financial services,” he said.
“As shown by the royal commission, this has too often resulted in consumers, including many of our clients, taking out inappropriate or unnecessary cover at significant personal cost.
“Ridding the industry of this type of underhanded practice will be a key step in stopping the exploitation of people’s understandable desire to protect their financial future.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that “ASIC’s ban on cold call telephone sales of life insurance is welcome…”. This is incorrect. It was supposed to say “ASIC’s ban on cold call telephone sales of direct life insurance is welcome…”
If i cold call someone to ask if they would like to talk about there super and book a time for a planner to call them back is that hawking?
Let’s just leave everyone alone… centrelink will take care of them when they sick or injured… right??!@!
I think that’s the idea, yes.
Remove individual accountability and necessity to think and you have a controllable population of sheeple who look to ‘the state’ to meet all their needs and protect them.
Welcome to ‘socialism’ (COMMUNISM).
[quote=Glass Houses]Gee I opened this article really hoping we might finally hear a sensible and balanced suggestion like “banning unsolicited sales calls in insurance and finance is awfully limited, we should be banning ALL unsolicited sales calls in order to protect vulnerable consumers from being hoodwinked into buying solar panels or switching energy providers or giving money to a charity!”
But sadly no.
A suggestion like that of course would mean that we’d all need to take a closer look at ‘claim farming’ and the sale of vulnerable members of our community’s private information to law firms who then make unsolicited calls to vulnerable people and use unscrupulous tactics to pressure them into taking inappropriate or unnecessary legal representation at significant personal cost and stress.
We really need to demand more robust requirements on law firms to report to regulators and consumers as to how they obtain and use personal information, how much is paid to ‘claim farmers’ for consumers’ private information, how legal work is priced and how much of vulnerable consumers’ insurance and superannuation benefits they are taking from claim payments and settlements.
More would also need to be done to address digital era communications, such as targeted marketing and advertising, search engine responses, letter box flyers, digital online advertising or targeted daytime media advertisements promising ‘compensation’.
Ridding the industry of these underhanded practices will reduce costs for consumers and see insurance benefits delivered to those in need and not the lawyers pockets and porches. Freeing up Australia’s bloated and abused legal system would also deliver better outcomes for the economy and the wider public.
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Seconded!
Gee I opened this article really hoping we might finally hear a sensible and balanced suggestion like “banning unsolicited sales calls in insurance and finance is awfully limited, we should be banning ALL unsolicited sales calls in order to protect vulnerable consumers from being hoodwinked into buying solar panels or switching energy providers or giving money to a charity!”
But sadly no.
A suggestion like that of course would mean that we’d all need to take a closer look at ‘claim farming’ and the sale of vulnerable members of our community’s private information to law firms who then make unsolicited calls to vulnerable people and use unscrupulous tactics to pressure them into taking inappropriate or unnecessary legal representation at significant personal cost and stress.
We really need to demand more robust requirements on law firms to report to regulators and consumers as to how they obtain and use personal information, how much is paid to ‘claim farmers’ for consumers’ private information, how legal work is priced and how much of vulnerable consumers’ insurance and superannuation benefits they are taking from claim payments and settlements.
More would also need to be done to address digital era communications, such as targeted marketing and advertising, search engine responses, letter box flyers, digital online advertising or targeted daytime media advertisements promising ‘compensation’.
Ridding the industry of these underhanded practices will reduce costs for consumers and see insurance benefits delivered to those in need and not the lawyers pockets and porches. Freeing up Australia’s bloated and abused legal system would also deliver better outcomes for the economy and the wider public.
I have an idea.Perhaps only those that know that they are going to claim should take out insurance, that way no one “wastes” their money on an unnecessary product.
Touting for business are we dear Ambulance chasers?
What a ridiculous suggestion that companies shouldn’t be able to call existing customers to check on whether their current life cover is still appropriate. That’s not cold calling. Our levels of Life Insurance are already far too low!!