Men Are Increasingly Purchasing Life Insurance Online, While Women Prefer The Personal Approach

Media Release: Thursday, 13 February 2020

The latest findings from NobleOak’s annual Life Insurance industry survey highlight a stark contrast in purchasing behaviour between men and women.
47% of females would prefer to speak to a representative on the phone, compared to just 32% of men. More females (48%), than men (41%), would prefer to use an expert financial adviser. Moreover, 31% of men would prefer to purchase online compared to just 18% of women.

What is your preferred way of purchasing a Life Insurance or or Income Protection product?

Interestingly, only 15% of 30-34-year-olds were likely to purchase using the internet, showing a potential lack of confidence or knowledge for this generation around Life Insurance.

NobleOak’s CEO, Anthony R Brown said:

Over the last 4 years we’ve seen a continued growth and confidence overall in the market for consumers purchasing their Life or Income Protection products online, and clearly men in particular are driving this change. Interestingly phone as a channel has stayed exactly the same over this time with about 40% of consumers consistently choosing that as their preferred platform, proving you can’t beat a great conversation. People still value the personal touch, especially with a product like life insurance, where customers usually have quite a few questions.

Overall, more consumers are using online and mobile devices to purchase Life Insurance and Income protection insurance, with the indication of an 18% growth in online sales for life insurance (over the last four years of NobleOak’s survey) and 42% increase in income protection insurance as consumers seek more convenient ways to purchase.

The full 2020 Whitepaper