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Recent surveys have confirmed that most brokers have diversified their product offering with insurance a key feature.
A recent straw poll by Mortgage Business found more than 70 per cent of brokers offer their clients insurance products as part of their presentation.
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Of the 282 respondents only 29.4 per cent said they did not offer any kind of insurance product.
Peter Hayward, head of distribution and marketing at Citibank, told Mortgage Business that it made sense for brokers to promote or sell insurance products.
“Brokers are helping their customers deal with large financial commitments, so it understandable that they would want to offer them some form of financial protection. After all, a broker’s role is to help service their clients’ needs,” he said.
Moreover, Mr Hayward said brokers have begun to realise the benefits of diversifying their business.
“Smaller lender commissions have encouraged brokers to seek other avenues to increase their profits,” he said.
Brendan O’Donnell, CEO of Choice Aggregation Services (Choice) agreed that it was essential for brokers to diversify their product offering in order to ensure ongoing business growth and their client servicing proposition.
A recent Choice survey found 81.5 per cent of the aggregator’s members believed it was appropriate to offer clients additional products while just 10.8 per cent of members surveyed believed it was not; 7.7 per cent were unsure.
“Choice has long advocated diversification to its members and it is clear that this message has been almost universally adopted. We don’t view customers as borrowers – they are clients – and that means that our members’ responsibility goes way beyond just focusing on their loan requirements,” Mr O’Donnell said.
“Forging deeper client relationships through a wider product offering will help brokers maintain revenue through all market conditions as well as strengthening their client service offering,” he said.
Smartline’ Kevin Lee told Mortgage Business that he included insurance products in his presentation.
“Life, trauma and income replacement insurance are the products I have found to be most popular,” he said.
“As a broker, my job is to make sure my clients are protected and can sleep well at night.”
While insurance products are almost part of a broker’s lexicon, Mr Lee said insurance companies could do more to make the whole process of applying for insurance products more seamless for brokers and customers alike.
“Insurance providers should automate the process of applying for insurance. As it stands you have to fill out another form, it takes an extra 20 minutes and can therefore be easily overlooked,” he said.
