By Jason Spits
AssociatedPlanners Financial Services(APFS) has approached a number of life insurance providers with a package deal in which the dealer group is seeking rewards for advisers who generate lower claims and turnover in their risk portfolio.
At the same time, the advisers and risk insurance houses would participate in a profit splitting arrangement, with the latter being provided with access to product development and marketing work undertaken by APFS, according to risk products marketing manager Col Fullagar.
The dealer group’s actions are the result of moves 12 months ago when it split its risk insurance providers into two groups after polling the group’s advisers regarding who they saw as providing the best risk insurance products and service.
Fullagar says APFS has been working closely with six life insurance companies with a number already committing to the deal.
“We have done the conceptual and initial development in-house, and if the life insurance companies make use of it, we are asking for a fair development royalty, which we are happy for the life companies to set,” Fullagar says.
At present, APFS has been working withAsteron,Aviva, Comminsure,MLC,INGandZurich, with three of those set to adopt the package. Fullagar says a further insurance group outside the six is also likely to adopt the package.
Fullagar says the package has been offered to a number of players in an effort to bolster product development in the area of risk insurance which he says has stalled in recent years due to the expensive nature of the full product development process.
“We have offered this on a wide basis because life insurance companies understand the value is not in the product but in the leverage the adviser brings and it proves to them that we are serious about what we are doing in this space.”
