Advice on insurance products made easier

Offering advice on insurance products is to be made easier following the adoption of standards by leading providers of life risk products.

Cannex, IWL and Platformplus all indicated they have, or will shortly be, incorporating APIR Systems’ codes into their products and services.

The pledge follows APIR’s April announcement to extend its directory and coding service to include life risk products in support of the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) Insurance Gap Initiative. The service is designed to improve the e-commerce platform used in the financial services industry.

“This will quickly translate into better access to research and products for planners and improved flows for the insurers and, from an industry perspective, be of real assistance in reducing the insurance gap,” APIR managing director Andy Hutchings Broso said.

IWL executive general manager Phillip Thomas described the codes as an important step forward.

“Having [codes] for life risk products is a must because insurance is now such a critical component of the advice process.”

Cannex manager risk research Lindsay Howard added that APIR codes simplified the integration and transacting of data.

“Any adviser will tell you that anything that helps with the compliance load is a good thing and providing certainty about products at review time is a big help with that.”

While COIN jumped aboard in April as an initial adopter of the service, Hutchings Broso praised the recent adoption by more industry players, saying it reflected industry recognition of the benefits of standards and standard identifiers.