Geoff Annals, CEO of Accuro, the health insurer, has made the clearest statement yet by any insurer on a shared view of responsibility for client outcomes.Illustrated in this quote, by talking about servicing requirements:
“Our remuneration should reflect that. That’s one of the things insurers can be criticised for. If we remunerate without requiring evidence that the service we expect has been delivered, we should be in the gun, too."
or a goodreturns article, at this link.
Previously companies have tended to act in a way which suggested a very clear demarcation between the insurer and the adviser. That view was a split between the client experience between product and service performance (provided by the insurer) and advice (provided by the adviser).
The view is effectively a recognition of the various legal contracts that underpin the commercial arrangements. Clients have a contract with the insurer, the insurer is not involved in the arrangement that the client may or may not have with the adviser. The adviser's role with the insurer is defined in their agency agreement. This split is widely reflected in the split in law, but it is not as clear-cut as it is sometimes represented. Whether insurers like it or not, advisers are their agent when it comes to the point of application. In other respects the boundaries may be blurred as well, such as when an adviser makes a mistake in good faith, and the insurer handles resolution - cancelling contracts from inception and returning monies paid, for example.
The discussion about conduct is drawing some areas previously dealt with by assumptions and expectations into the daylight, and is perhaps demanding that they should be made explicit. Perhaps there should be explicit service obligations. If a significant portion of the client's experience of a product is based on a service the adviser will provide, then maybe the adviser and the insurer should agree what that service looks like.
The potential upside for advisers here is clarity in their centrality of their role to the operation of the product. On the flip side of that, insurers may wish to operate two channels - one where they are happy with transactional introductions, and another where they want a genuine partnership with advisers.
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