Kell accuses advisers, insurers of blame-shifting

There has been too much finger-pointing and not enough acceptance of collective responsibility by insurers, advisers and other participants in the Australian life insurance industry, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission deputy chairman, Peter Kell.

Kell has told a Parliamentary Joint Committee that he believed one of the reasons why there had been so little improvement in the industry’s compliance was because of its failure to accept collective responsibility.

“I think one of the reasons why we haven't seen the improvements in this sector over time that I think we would like to see is, in our experience, it has been a sector where there has been—too often— a practice of different players pointing the finger at each other,” he said.

“’Why are we getting poor outcomes here?' The advisers point the finger at the insurers, the insurers point the finger at the advisers, the direct people point the finger over there and so on and so forth,” Kell said.

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He said ASIC had said up-front that “we've seen too often various subsections of the industry attempting to deflect responsibility to other industry participants rather than taking a constructive approach to a reform, and part of our message at the moment, given that we're looking at the whole sector, is that there has to be collective ownership of raising the bar.”

“That's been a problem in this sector for far too long— people just pointing the finger at each other rather than saying, 'How can we deliver something better for the consumer?'”