Cut out cold calling warns FSC
The Financial Services Council (FSC) has supported recommendations that prevent insurers from pressuring consumers to buy products over the phone.
FSC chief executive, Sally Loane, said the practice was ‘not acceptable’ and that insurers should be unable to make cold outbound calls for the purposes of selling life or consumer credit insurance.
The recommendation comes from the Financial Services Royal Commission’s recommendation 4.1 that hawking of insurance products should be prohibited. The FSC supported another claim in the recommendation 4.1 earlier this week over Unfair Contract Terms.
Loane said: “There is no place for cold calling and pressuring random people into buying a life insurance product they don’t need, want or understand.
“For an outbound call to be justified, a person must first have given their positive, clear and informed consent, before being contacted.
“Additionally, given there is no legislated time frame in which calls need to be made, the FSC believes an initial call should be made within three months of consent.”
She acknowledged the insurance industry had already made progress through better use of monitoring, remuneration practices, appropriate incentives and the FSC Life Insurance Code of Practice.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.
