DIY Life Insurance Gains Traction over Advice l NobleOak Whitepaper

More and more consumers are taking control when it comes to buying life insurance. This is the findings from the third annual survey from NobleOak.

The research, commissioned in December 2018 amongst over 1,000 respondents, found that 48.2% of Australians are not willing to pay anything for financial advice with respect to Life Insurance.

Consumers in control

Three consecutive years of research shows that, in purchasing Life Insurance, consumers are continuing the drift away from the adviser channel and increasingly turning to technology tools to research, compare and then purchase products.

This result highlights the increasing trend of people using the internet to research companies and products rather than pay adviser fees. Australians now rely on content, online tools and online user reviews more than ever before to help them decide on which life insurance product they will rely on to protect their family.

The survey also showed that people are becoming increasingly comfortable with online options. Of all people surveyed 72.6% believe there was enough information online to help them understand the different types of Life Insurance and Income Protection cover they need. In addition, 71.7% believe there was enough information online to understand how much cover they needed.

More Life Insurance is being bought through online and mobile channels

In the first survey completed in 2016, 10.6% of respondents said they had purchased either Life Insurance or Income Protection Insurance online or through a mobile device, and this has now increased to 16.3%, representing an increase of more than 50% over three years. Looking to the future, 58.0% said they would purchase these products through these channels, up from 51.7% in the first survey.

Declining influence

In addition, the survey revealed that financial advisers also have less influence on people’s Life Insurance decisions than they do over issues of a more general finance nature. The percentage of respondents nominating financial advisers as a source of advice on Life Insurance fell from 25.4% to 23.9% over the last three years whilst other sources remained stable.

These findings indicate that the majority of people who are considering taking out cover are willing to spend the time researching what type of how much cover they need.

Confidence in advisers has been undermined

More than one third of respondents say their confidence in buying Life Insurance through advisers has been “undermined” as a result of the Royal Commission hearings.

The responses to this question were evenly split, but the largest response was the 35.1% who said their confidence had been undermined. 32.5% said their confidence had not been undermined, while 32.4% said they were “not sure.”

Increasing use of online tools

Further the survey showed that 75.4% of people are confident in purchasing Life Insurance or Income Protection online without financial advice. This was reinforced by 61.8% of respondents indicating they would choose an online calculator to buy Life Insurance over a financial adviser.

NobleOak identified this trend two years ago and developed a free online calculator tool. Using a series of behavioural and scenario based questions, the calculator helps consumers identify the likely types and amounts of cover they may need and potential gaps with any existing cover.

The Life Insurance Calculator covers Life, TPD, Trauma and Income Protection – producing a personalised report people can use to compare products or apply for NobleOak cover over the phone.

The NobleOak Insurance Calculator recently won the Life Insurance Product – Innovation of the Year from the RFI Group Australian Insurance Awards 2018.

NobleOak’s calculator has been independently verified by Rice Warner Actuaries, a leading independent provider of research and actuarial advice to the Australian Financial Services Industry.

Source:

This research referred to in this Whitepaper was conducted independently by PureProfile in December 2018 from a survey completed by over 1,000 Australians.