Major insurer TAL is expected to come under the microscope at the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry today with the insurer already having acknowledged misconduct in relation to misleading and unsolicited sales calls.
TAL will represent the third insurer scrutinised over its direct sales business with ClearView having been the subject of significant scrutiny over its now-closed ClearView Direct business and with Freedom having been the subject of nearly two days of scrutiny.
TAL has already acknowledged misconduct in relation to misleading and unsolicited sales calls with the Royal Commission having been told that in December 2010 it identified approximately 10,381 instances where it did not meet the unsolicited call requirements of the Corporations Act.
As well, TAL acknowledged that in July 2011, it identified approximately 17,000 leads that may have contained a breach of anti-hawking provisions for failing to obtain appropriate customer consent.
In addition, from 2012 to 2017, TAL identified that approximately 3.5 per cent of its monitored calls were misleading sales calls according to its internal criteria. It identified that approximately .2 per cent of its monitored calls involved unconscionable conduct according to its internal criteria.
The Royal Commission has been told these included instances of selling to vulnerable or potentially vulnerable people, including customers who appeared disengaged during the call or who had limited literacy, comprehension or communication skills, and instances of an insurance representative selling a policy to a customer who indicated that they had a guardian or were under the guardianship of the Public Trustee.
