Synchron director Don Trapnell said that after becoming the first licensee in Australia to launch disclosure education videos it was good to see the group’s initiative has “resonated with other licensees” which will help advisers explain the risks of non-disclosure.
“The launch of very similar tools now emerging from other licensees are necessary to help advisers explain the risks of non-disclosure on insurance applications to their clients, protecting all parties in the process,” Mr Trapnell said.
“The more this method of disclosure is used by advisers, the less likelihood there will be of litigation in the area of explaining duty of disclosure and the less likelihood there will be of the client having a claim denied at some future date due to non-disclosure,” he said.
Mr Trapnell also said while disclosure might adversely affect the price of premiums, it is far better for clients to pay more than to take the risk of a claim being paid out due to non-disclosure.
“The video we developed at the beginning of 2014 helps our advisers get that message through to clients and also saves them from having to repeat the same thing over and over to each client,” Mr Trapnell said.
“It is good to see that our initiative has resonated with other licensees,” he added.
First in the press isn’t necessarily first to do it. I know a group HNW who have been doing compliance videos for their advisers for 3 years now and has been running various mentoring programs since 2009 so good to see others finally catching up 3 – 5 years later.