Protecting the Protectors June 2020
By Contact State
Every day thousands of people up and down the country choose insurance products to protect their families and loved ones. Those families, the life insurance advisers who help them and the insurers who provide the products are ‘the protectors’.
In recent years a rogue element has entered this chain; a small number of mainly offshore lead generators have been producing fraudulent advertising as well as mishandling and reselling consumer insurance data. These firms care very little about the detriment they can cause to customer outcomes.
Many within the protection industry question whether lead generation - the process of advertising to and then introducing a consumer to an intermediary - is making the industry more accessible to the general public or merely commodifying and reducing the value of an insurance policy.
This paper highlights:
- That unless the insurance industry changes direction, large intermediaries and insurer partners are at serious risk of being investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
- How some life insurance lead generation firms use fraudulent short term tactics; misleading advertising, resell consumer data and impersonate insurance brands.
- That disreputable lead generation activity is driving clawback rates and increasing industry bad debt.