Insurance and the road into 2022 – what are we in for?

As industries around the globe seek to place their customers at the centre of everything, it is clear that the long-term insurance industry and advisers alike, need to find new ways to service the market better, more efficiently and with a much quicker turn around.

This demand has been growing for a long time, but this year will define this even further and it will be crucial for advisers to take heed of the market opportunities that present themselves and offer quick, efficient servicing opportunities that set them apart from the rest.

There is no doubt that we will continue to face the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for a while to come. Which is why financial advisers should understand where consumers are in their long-term thinking: Do I have the right policies and investments, am I getting the value I need to benefit my family and do I have the right people and technology in place to help me navigate any sudden changes? These are all critical to consumers today and yet, despite the realities, affordability and value is ever more important.

For the adviser market, this means a more agile approach to the provision of various long-term insurance and supporting products. This is one of the reasons many insurers have embraced a digital first strategy for the two past years – a trend we expect to continue into 2022.

Remote acceptance and self-servicing platforms

We’ve said it before and this year it is even more appropriate – fully digital insurance and investment offerings are no longer a luxury – whether you’re the insurer or adviser. Consumers are demanding quicker turnaround and the opportunity for full transparency of the process – and they want all this securely. However, the personal relationship and engagement with the client in the broker space must remain, it is a marriage of digital and human engagement in fact. In the year to come, we believe we will see many more financial advisers making use of remote interaction processes to bring both technology and the human touch into collaboration for the best, most efficient outcome.

This transition from purely human to a hybrid of both has also enabled consumers, who are ever more digitally advanced, to access self-servicing platforms and update their own details and add/remove existing products quickly and safely.

To sum it up, if we as insurers and advisers are not creating opportunity for quicker, easier insurance that offers transparency, personalisation and efficacy with the backing of the right advice and technological support, we will certainly be left behind.

Value in product offering & truly meeting unique needs

Customers today expect their insurer, and consequently adviser, to deliver personalised and tailored products and services through an efficient, easy to engage with process and platform. They want to be able to take up policies immediately and ensure that, when they need it, claims are processed rapidly and with greater versatility. Essentially, they want it to be available anywhere, at any time, and via any channel.

But it is more than just about the product itself. Rather, crucially, it is about the value that we can bring based on individual affordability and how quickly we can make clients’ financial needs a reality. How do insurers provide advisers with the right tools, technology and product value to give consumers what they need, when they need it? It is this evolution and continuous innovation in insurance that will lead the way in 2022.

A key trend in the digitisation space when it comes to insurers, is the increasing use of technology utilised by insurers in fraud prevention, risk management and the development of agile policies. Equally, it is clear that technology innovation will play an increasingly fundamental role in encouraging a more customer-centric and resilient insurance business model – one that is ever evolving and highly competitive.

It must be understood that although these technologies offer new opportunities to deliver the kind of future-focused insurance services that suit both customers’ demands and their pockets, digital transformation also offers the opportunity to deliver far superior customer service and in the advisor space – where time is money.

Those that embrace technology and place customers at the centre of this development journey will reap the long-term rewards, while satisfying consumer needs and ensuring larger retention.

1Life is a licensed life insurer & FSP. Ts & Cs Online.