By their nature, life insurance products lend themselves to online application. Straightforward products can be simple to underwrite which means clients can get the cover they need quickly and efficiently. This is a boon for busy expats whose time is at a premium.
Financial advice firms that provide a white labelled service on their websites also benefit. Having the link makes their website more interactive, it provides fast and easy access to obtaining a valuable product, and it gives them an additional revenue stream.
Global Benefits Europe’s Life Protector, for example, can provide up to $400,000 worth of life cover without requiring a medical examination. This makes it ideal for inclusion as an easy-access product on a website. I know this because we’ve done it at Guardian Wealth Management and it is working very well for us.
The additional benefit from having this link is that, having made the decision to buy life insurance, clients also may be more open to looking at other aspects of insurance cover as well. Some of this will need to be advised upon and so a cross-selling opportunity is created.
In the international advice arena having this kind of interactive, client-friendly online facility is becoming increasingly important. In fact, I would go so far as to say that unless a financial advice firm offers these online services and facilities to its clients, in the near future it could quickly find itself behind the curve and that its clients start to take their business elsewhere.
I believe one of the elements that will distinguish a great financial advice offering from here on in will be the ability to give expats and international workers the online access they require not just to simple, transactional products but to a wide range of expert services any of which they may need while domiciled abroad.
These services will include transactional options such as life insurance and private medical cover as well as access to professional help such as legal services.
This is best achieved through partnership with third-party firmswhicht are expert in the international field. Choice of partner is crucial. Any service offered through a firm’s website reflects on its business. If things go wrong then it is vital to know as soon as possible and for there to be an agreement in place to ensure it is clear who will deal with the problem and in what time frame.
To make the website work for the advice firm and its preferred partners, people must be attracted to it in the first place. Having access to quality services will be an attraction in itself – word of which can spread through the expat grapevine – but the successful firm will need to have a range of information and opportunities, such as news relevant to its markets, easy to read factsheets and helpful guides, and exclusive deals and products that make it worthwhile for clients to log-on regularly and to tell their friends and colleagues when they do.
These facilities take time to set up and to make them work properly. But in my opinion, any firm that provides that one-stop-shop will quickly steal a march on the rest of the market.
