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ALI Group chief executive Huy Truong explains why an increasing number of brokers are choosing to add insurance to their overall client offering.
In the past 12 months, we have had more than 1,500 brokers protect their clients with loan/mortgage protection – a significant increase on the year prior, and reflective of the increasing awareness and desire of brokers and broker groups to protect their clients.
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The core issue we find with many of the remaining brokers who do not discuss protection with clients is a perception that it’s too much effort and/or they lack the confidence.
Our effort therefore is to move beyond awareness and more to further process simplification and coaching brokers to turn that awareness into activity. Once a broker tries it, they often realise how well their clients respond to this caring discussion and how seamless the process is.
Why you should do it
The reality is that the need for client protection is greater than ever with the amount of indebtedness and critical illness statistics. Industry analysis highlights that Australians still remain largely underinsured (Rice Warner report, Underinsurance in Australia).
The millions of dollars that ALI pays every year to broker clients highlight this need. While we see firsthand the benefit a payout has on a claimant, our thoughts are constantly consumed by those borrowers affected by death or critical illness with no protection.
How ALI Group can help
There are three core principles of ALI’s mortgage protection solution that makes it seamless for brokers:
1. Guaranteed acceptance for all broker clients that are Australian or New Zealand citizens or permanent residents between the ages of 18 and 59. Everyone that satisfies these criteria will be protected – guaranteed.
2. The application is paperless and integrated within leading broker CRM platforms. This reduces any need for double data entry and diversion to a different process.
3. We have a national BDM network and broker helpline to address any queries immediately.
The success of the paperless application process is reflected in our 2015 Broker Survey where our authorised representatives rated ease of policy application as the most satisfied aspect of ALI.
More broadly, brokers rated ALI with a net promoter score (NPS) of 69 – an incredibly high score in the world of NPS comparisons.
Protecting the client
From a client care perspective, there’s really only one question mortgage brokers need to ask their clients: ‘What’s your plan B if you or your partner were affected by a critical illness, serious injury or death and could not make your loan or mortgage repayments?’
The question should be asked with genuine care and empathy, not as a product add-on or diversification. Client care and protection is fundamentally core business.
Our focus going forward
As the leading mortgage protection partner to the industry over the past many years, we have invested heavily helping brokers become more aware of the importance of client protection. More recently, we have moved beyond awareness to making it easy and compelling for brokers to protect their clients.
The next 12 months will see us innovate again to more effectively support those brokers who protect their clients such that their businesses grow market share and become more profitable.
We will reveal more in due course.
