Macquarie Life gets underway
Macquarie Adviser Services has launched a new non-super linked life insurance product that allows financial planners to provide fully underwritten coverage through an online application process.
Called FutureWise, the product has been designed to streamline the insurance application process to a degree where the required coverage can be delivered to clients in as little time as 15 minutes.
Head of Macquarie Life Justin Delany said: “Over the last 10 years we’ve seen … things that have been designed to streamline the back-office processes that support the advice process, but we’ve yet to see anything significant regarding life insurance.
“That’s why Macquarie decided to develop this platform. We need to make life insurance more attractive to more advisers, and help make the process more efficient,” he added.
Macquarie FutureWise encompasses a suite of products including life insurance, total and permanent disability insurance, medical recovery (or trauma) and disability income insurance.
The product allows Macquarie to underwrite any insurance coverage for the product up to the value of $3 million itself before it has to enlist the services of an external party.
The online platform has incorporated a unique intuitive functionality feature that has been designed to allow advisers to capture more relevant information regarding cover at the initial application stage in an effort to avoid further requests for additional information.
Macquarie senior product manager, insurance, Marcus Chantry explained: “What is meant by intuitive depends on what type of cover the person is applying for, what level of cover, what they do for their job … [this] determines what other bits of information it needs to be able to provide an immediate underwriting assessment.”
The product has also been integrated with the other existing Macquarie platforms, allowing standard information to be used across the board to eliminate as much record duplication as possible.
In addition, Macquarie has designed FutureWise to be used either as a standalone retail insurance product or a standalone superannuation product.
Remuneration structures built into the offering are flexible; with advisers being able to either accept commission-based income or rebate all of the commissions if they are operating on a fee-for-service basis.
Financial planners wanting to access FutureWise can do so immediately after completing a registration procedure with Macquarie.
Recommended for you
Financial Services Minister, Stephen Jones, has assured the cost and time to enter the financial advice profession will soon be halved, as shadow treasurer Angus Taylor pledges to reach 30,000 advisers.
The positive results of the latest financial adviser exam have helped the advice profession reach 15,600 yet again, according to Wealth Data analysis.
Financial advice firms have told Adviser Ratings they are planning to increase their compliance spend by almost a third, including on enhancements to their cyber security which ASIC has identified as an enforcement priority.
The digital advice platform is officially launching into the financial advice sector, offering up its services to practices as a means of engaging with the next generation of clients.
