Online life risk portals a boost to consumer engagement

Online information portals could be powerful tools for advisers to engage their clients in the difficult discussion of risk insurance, and two such portals were recently launched in the same week.

The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) recently launched its online Know Risk public education campaign, which includes a portal that will provide access to mini-documentaries about the positive outcomes of risk management, digital tools aimed at assisting insurance decisions and an interactive social network to enable people to share their experiences and knowledge.

In the same week, Lifewise, the insurance industry initiative launched by the Financial Services Council (FSC) in February last year, announced its ‘Rose Coloured Glasses’ campaign, which involves an online blog. Lifewise has chosen select bloggers and hopes the innovative approach will spark debate about risk insurance.

ANZIIF chief executive Joan Fitzpatrick said the portal would become “a fantastic tool” for advisers and insurance brokers because it would deliver independent information.

“Most of the problem is that insurance is usually discussed in a sales conversation environment,” she said. Fitzpatrick added that the portal would provide independent information to consumers that would open the door to advisers having that sales conversation with their clients.

FSC chief executive John Brogden agreed that online tools like the blog would help advisers move away from the sales conversation and were in line with the general reform shift.

“The change that will take place in the industry over the next couple of years for all financial advisers is that it will move from a sales process to a service process,” he said.

Brogden said Lifewise’s initiative was targeted at younger people because many thought they were indestructible, and they were the last ones to think about life insurance.

However, Fitzpatrick noted that ANZIIF’s assumption that online social networking was the domain of the young was quashed when it discovered that the fastest growing online user group was those aged between 35 and 50. Therefore, the online portal had the potential to engage all levels of the community.

Brogden said innovation would help the industry break through the complacency around life insurance and convince the public that there were benefits.

“We decided to launch an online campaign because this is the place where consumers are speaking to one another and exchanging ideas on a daily basis,” he said.