The Insurance Authority (IA) in Hong Kong has allowed intermediaries to sell insurance products without needing to meet their clients face-to-face.
The measure only applies to qualifying deferred annuity and voluntary health insurance schemes which are eligible for tax deduction in the 2019-20 financial year.
Under normal circumstances, an intermediary would be obliged to meet with a potential or existing client before being able to sell these types of products.
But due to the coronavirus outbreak, the insurance regulator has set out extraordinary measures to avoid unnecessary contact.
‘Challenging period’
Intermediaries will still need to make sure they have disclosed any relevant information upfront to their clients, and need to apply an “extended cooling-off period” of at least 30 days for the policy documents to be delivered by post.
It is usually a 21-day cooling off period.
The extraordinary measures will be in force until 31 March 2020.
“The insurance industry is facing daunting challenges amidst the novel coronavirus outbreak,” said Moses Cheng, chairman of the IA.
“Against this backdrop, the temporary facilitative measures are aimed at enabling potential policyholders to purchase selected products eligible for tax deduction from their insurance intermediaries without attending face-to-face meetings as normally required.
“The IA has also been collaborating with the industry to provide essential relief measures for the insuring public during this challenging period.”
The regulator itself took steps to decrease the risk of spreading the virus as much as possible, as its office has been closed to the public since the beginning of February 2020.
