Risk & Insurance

Risk & Insurance

AFCA sounds alarm on high insurance premiums

The complaints authority’s lead ombudsman says the life insurance industry is rapidly pricing itself out of consumers’ range and will encounter serious sustainability issues if it can’t harness innovation – just like the banks are facing with buy-now, pay later disruptors.

Tahn SharpeApril 26, 2021

Risk & Insurance

Government pulls LIF review from ASIC’s purview

The long-awaited Life Insurance Framework review will now be rolled into the Quality of Advice review, with ASIC being asked to hand over its research to Treasury. It’s “silly” to have two separate reviews into advice at the same time, minister Hume said.

Tahn SharpeApril 21, 2021

Risk & Insurance

Departing riskies face halved valuations by delaying book sales

Many insurance advisers are expected to leave the industry rather than sit and pass the adviser exam before the end of the year, but brokers report there are almost no risk books on the market. A flood of these businesses in the final quarter of the year could cut valuation multiples in half, they warn.

Tahn SharpeMarch 15, 2021

Risk & Insurance

Bert goes into bat for insurance commissions

Less than an hour after Labor’s Stephen Jones said insurance commissions were “a problem”, Liberal MP and ex-planner Bert van Manen called them a “perfectly valid form of remuneration”. Despite his endorsement, financial services minister Jane Hume says the government will also wait on the LIF review's findings before making a call on the issue.

Tahn SharpeMarch 3, 2021

Risk & Insurance

Jones doubles down on risk commissions ban stance

The shadow financial services minister reaffirmed his bias against insurance commissions and all but vowed to eliminate anything resembling conflicted remuneration out of the industry if Labor wins the next federal election.

Tahn SharpeMarch 2, 2021

Risk & Insurance

Pandemic shifts insurance advice goalposts

Higher premiums, compliance hurdles and administration are making life difficult for insurance advisers, who are increasingly turning to their provider relationship managers for help to navigate product offerings.

Tahn SharpeFebruary 25, 2021

Risk & Insurance

Most advisers to be exempt from new claims handling AFSL rules

Confusion around new rules for claims handling – and misleading press coverage – has led many advisers to believe they need to apply for a new AFS licence. Association heads have confirmed Treasury is set to include an exemption for the "vast majority" of advisers.

Tahn SharpeDecember 1, 2020

Risk & Insurance

Insurance commissions should go: ALP

Shadow finance minister Stephen Jones said proving that a commission-based model can function without conflicts is an “enormous challenge”. While open to the findings of the 2021 insurance review, he made it clear the ALP has every intention of getting rid of commissions holus-bolus if elected in 2022.

Tahn SharpeOctober 15, 2020

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