Morning Briefing: Consumers actually want you to sell them more

Consumers actually want you to sell them more… Co-ops, mutuals lead the industry on gender diversity at senior level… Millennials are on target for retirement says John Hancock…

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Consumers actually want you to sell them more
Consumers are keen for insurance companies to sell them more than just insurance according to a new international survey.

The poll of more than 164,000 consumers in 19 countries by Bain & Co found that there is an interest in insurance companies offering additional products to keep them protected. These include anti-theft devices for autos, home monitoring services, health advice and even estate planning.

If the poll’s findings were to be realized it could help insurers generate revenue outside traditional streams like premiums and investments.

“Insurance executives know that improving the long-term economics of the business will require interacting more and delivering more value to customers,” said Henrik Naujoks, who leads Bain’s Financial Services Practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and co-authored the report. “Our new research sheds light on how various customer segments perceive their P&C and life carriers, what customers want from their carriers and how they behave, and how different distribution and interaction channels influence loyalty.”

Bain’s research shows that insurers can do more to engage with customers by providing added value and it has identified four key areas to focus on: cross-selling; greater customer loyalty; accelerate the mobile channel; and mastering comparison websites by understanding consumers’ expectations.
 
Co-ops, mutuals lead the industry on gender diversity at senior level
Cooperative and mutual insurance companies have a higher level of women in senior roles compared to the industry average.

Research by the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation discovered that 20.6 per cent of boards in the sector were women in 2015 compared to 17.8 per cent across the industry as a whole; the percentage has doubled in 10 years.

There has also been a slight increase in the percentage of women at CEO/senior management level, up to 27 per cent in 2015 compared to 25 per cent in 2010. For North America, 20 per cent of CEOs were women.

“These trends coming out of the mutual and cooperative sector are very encouraging, and while there is still a lot of work to do by the insurance industry in general in terms of gender parity in executive management, our sector is certainly leading the way,” said ICMIF chief executive Shaun Tarbuck.
 
Millennials are on target for retirement says John Hancock
More than half of millennials in the US are on target for retirement income according to data from John Hancock.

The firm’s retirement planning division found that employers’ adoption of auto-enrollment has helped young Americans start saving for retirement earlier and most would now be able to retire on 70 per cent of their pre-retirement income.

“With Millennials, our challenge is not getting them to join the plan – auto-solutions have done that – but it is to engage them in their broader financial lives,” said Patrick Murphy, president of John Hancock RPS. “Millennials tend to do more of their own research up front, but then they often want to clarify some information, and validate their thinking, so there is still a place for exceptional, one-on-one customer support and expert advice.”
 

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