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By: Jessica Darnbrough
In a bid to increase its service offering, Smartline has partnered with Aon Financial Planning and Protection to give its mortgage brokers the ability to offer risk insurance to their clients.
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Smartline managing director Chris Acret said that this new partnership would move risk insurance to a core and integrated offering for every client, with the potential for the income for Smartline advisers to be as important as that earned from mortgages.
“We haven’t entered into this arrangement with Aon lightly,” Mr Acret said.
“We’ve had a team of people working on this project for close to a year. We have worked closely with Aon over many months to build a new proposition and model that suits our specific business and our clients. It makes a lot of sense to have a conversation with clients about risk insurance at a time when they are taking on a significant financial commitment.
According to Mr Acret, there is a huge underlying demand for risk insurance, with Australians some of the most underinsured in the world.
Smartline has long had an affiliation with insurance, and was one of the first companies to sign up with ALI eight years ago.
"We have offered insurance for some time, but this partnership will take it one step further. We are encouraging our brokers to diversify and with this partnership they have the oportunity to provide full risk insurance advice," Mr Acret told The Adviser.
"We have always thought risk insurance went hand in hand with mortgages and we have seen many of our brokers dabble with it. Now, however, we want to make it part of our core business."
The company’s brokers will be able to undergo specialised training that will provide them with the ability to provide personal risk advice and recommended life, total and permanent disability, income protection and trauma insurance.
