New Platform to Slash Cost of Risk Advice

A new technology solution to be launched into the market is being designed to reduce the cost to provide life insurance advice by up to 90%.

Called LifeBid, the new service platform has been developed by a group of industry practitioners seeking to find an answer to the dilemma facing many in the life insurance sector of being able to deliver affordable risk advice to more Australians while maintaining a viable advice business.

Addressing the issues of cost and complexity associated with delivering life insurance advice solutions, NSW specialist risk adviser, Brett Wright, who is one of the founders of LifeBid, says the service is intended to be an “…end-to-end technology solution that connects all industry stakeholders, enabling advice providers and insurers to seamlessly engage, educate, advise and manage their client’s life insurance needs.”

The end-to-end platform packages all the regulatory and other elements associated with delivering new advice, together with systems that also manage:

• Referrals
• Renewals
• Policy alerts
• Claims processes

In utilising the new platform’s intended capability to slash the cost to serve by up to 90%, Wright says this will allow both advisers and insurers to exponentially increase their capacity to provide insurance advice and ongoing service and distribution capabilities, while at the same time providing easier and more affordable consumer access to quality advice and insurance cover.

Providing a consumer-related context to what this new service is seeking to deliver, Wright likened the current life insurance experience for Australian consumers as “…a bit like asking them to head down to Blockbuster Video to hire a VHS, when all they really want is Netflix.”

Commenting on the new service, Australian Unity’s Executive GM Advice, Matt Brown, says a critical barrier to enabling advisers to provide their services to more people is making the advice process safer, more efficient, and more engaging for both the adviser and client. Brown says Australian Unity sees LifeBid as “…a real game changer on these fronts.”

From the life company perspective, Zurich’s head of distribution, Kieran Forde, commented that the industry does not need incremental improvements, but rather “…we need transformational end to end change and that’s what LifeBid aims to provide.”

Brown and Forde’s comments have been echoed in a raft of other public statements issued by life company CEOs and senior managers, major licensee firms and other industry stakeholders – all supporting the LifeBid initiative and its purpose.

Advisers and other interested industry colleagues can click here to access more details about the LifeBid proposition.