Financial planners will look to Kevin Rudd’s Government for support to boost Australian’s life insurance sales and bridge the protection gap.
When ING Australia (INGA) asked advisers who should drive the solution to underinsurance, 1200 advisers overwhelmingly said it was up to the Government.
While advisers believed they were also part of the solution, education and public awareness programs to promote the importance of appropriate life insurance were also key, INGA found.
“The critical underinsurance of Australians is both a huge social issues and a major professional challenge: the life insurance industry must convince all financial advisers of the value of risk protection and give them the requisite skills to effectively communicate its value to clients,” INGA life risk executive director Helen Troup said.
INGA conducted the survey at its OneCare Express launch in major cities across Australia.
Planners were evenly split when they were asked if they thought the adviser of the future would be generalist or specialist.
However, in Adelaide 65 per cent thought in future advisers would be generalist and in Brisbane 60 per cent thought specialisation was the way forward.
Six in 10 advisers (62 per cent) said that future risk advisers would come through career development. The next likely source was financial planning university degrees (16 per cent).
