The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) needs to be careful to ensure that economic advisers are not inadvertently caught up within the new, more difficult anti-hawking provisions across the sale of existing insurance products, in keeping with the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
In a submission responding to ASIC’s tough new method to unsolicited phone sales of direct lifestyles coverage and client credit insurance, the AFA has backed the banning of unsolicited cellphone income of lifestyles insurance but has warned the want to keep away from unintentional outcomes.
The AFA stated that existence coverage became a complicated product that has to be sold without the gain of personal economic recommendation in occasions where the average Australian changed into not having a great understanding of their insurance desires or the goods to be had.
However, the AFA warned ASIC that the purchaser safety messaging around life insurance had to be carefully modulated to make certain that lifestyle insurance’s price was not undermined. It additionally stated the anti-hawking provisions and warned against allowing economic advisers to get caught up in the definition of “unsolicited.” “One essential consideration for us is the definition of ‘unsolicited’ and the chance that a financial adviser contacting a present purchaser approximately the suitability in their modern insurance can be taken into consideration unsolicited,” the AFA submission said.
“We additionally agree with that more attention desires to receive to economic advisers who work with regional and far-flung customers, in which interplay with their customers is extra often finished via the cellphone,” it stated. “We might not like to see this proposal area obstacles or additional prices on these local/far-off monetary advisers.” “Also, given the changes in communique technology, perhaps there may be a need to address different styles of contact which can be feasible via social media applications.”
