Insurance Consumer Behaviour: Why Consumers are Going Direct for Life Insurance

The trend for consumers to research and purchase financial services products online is spreading quickly to Life insurance – according to a new NobleOak whitepaper just launched.

NobleOak has just released ‘Life Insurance in Australia – Consumer Behaviour Transformation’ which includes the results from a comprehensive research study conducted in December 2016 by independent research firm Pureprofile, that asked over 1,000 Australian adults aged between 30 and 60 years old about their research and buying behaviour with respect to financial services products, including Life and Income Protection insurance.

Key findings

This comprehensive whitepaper includes a number of interesting findings.

1. Life insurance is now bought and sold.

More and more Australians recognise their own need for Life insurance and Income Protection cover and are sourcing online research and comparison tools to help them. This is consistent with a wider trend, with 61% of people now seeking to obtain advice about their overall financial needs using the Internet.

2. Life insurance advice is now predominantly sourced from the Internet.

Of those who seek to obtain Life insurance advice, 32% prefer using the Internet, while 25% use a financial adviser and 20% rely on family members. Refer to the Table 1 below.

Table 1 – Extract from whitepaper
Where do you obtain advice with respect to your Life insurance needs?

3. Online comparison tools have become a key driver of needs.

66% of respondents use websites as a way of comparing Life Insurance and Income Protection policies, compared with an adviser at 23%. Refer to Table 2 below.

Table 2 – Extract from whitepaper
What source would you use to compare Life Insurance or Income Protection policies before purchasing?

4. Buying behaviour across financial services products varies considerably.

The impact technology has had on how we use financial services products has varied significantly between products. 79% of respondents believe technology has changed their interaction with banks over the past 3 years, while Life Insurance and Income Protection remain laggards at 37% and 34% respectively. It is inevitable the use of technology for purchasing Life insurance will increase just like other financial services products.

5. There is a stark difference between purchasing behaviour and future intention.

While only 7% of respondents have purchased Life insurance products online, 39% would purchase Life insurance online or through a mobile device if they needed it.

6. Advice is undervalued with evolving digital resources.

72% of respondents would be confident in purchasing a Life insurance or Income Protection product online, without financial advice, if the right resources were available.

Based on these results, a major behavioural shift is taking place and further acceleration appears very likely.

Click here for a free copy of the NobleOak whitepaper.