Insurance

Death of an (insurance) salesman

Thursday 21st of April 2011

"If you do what you're meant to as an AFA now and go and say [to a client] you should be paying $600 a month and my commission is $14,000 to do this, they're going to be skeptical."

He also said more transparency around disclosure may make people query the varied amounts of commission brokers can make.

"You're doing the same job to insure a farmer for $3 million as you are doing a family man for $500,000 so why should you be taking six times the commission for the same time?"

Morgan has established his ‘no-advice' online insurance provider to offer significantly reduced premiums by slashing commission rates by 50%.

He is able to offer such significant reductions by placing the onus on the client to analyse their own needs and identify the amount of life cover they need for their own circumstances.

"I'm sending people to the Retirement Commissioner's website, saying you do your own needs analysis and I will discount your premiums for life no matter which company you choose. Premiums over 20 years will go up every year based on age, that's thousands of dollars of premiums. That's a lot of money."

Morgan also said offering cheaper insurance may overcome one of the main hurdles around the country's level of underinsurance.

"After you take away the typical household mortgage, insurance is one of the biggest drains on a family and an individuals income. But by using this website, they can now take advantage of some real savings," he said.

"This means the savings made on insurance premiums can be spent on retirement plans like KiwiSaver, reducing debt, paying off the mortgage or investing in your child's education."

PEOPLE: Who is behind Plus4

Comments (7)
dave mason
This is a dilemma for some. People need professionals to assist them in understanding their specific needs, and professionals need to earn a salary. If you are earning your salary through commissions, then why is there shame in this? If those commissions are out of alignment with the work undertaken, then fair enough, but in my experience it takes a lot of work to compile a full insurance needs analysis on an individual, and especially an entity. In the UK around 10/11 years ago similar online insurance companies came on the scene, and people still went to their brokers. There is a place for both, as they suit different customer types. The online companies also slated the broker model, which has the opposite effect of the desired effect. People stop trusting any insurance sales channel. One is not better than another... they are just different..
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13 years ago

Mike King
"Savings" on insurance premiums? This broker group is discounting the COMMISSION by 50%, and in doing so, may be saving the consumer 10%. Sure, that will add up to a lot of premium over time, but for this half-commission "Insurance4me" is doing very little of any real value. If Des Morgan is such a philanthropist, why does he sell these products at ZERO commission and charge a flat, direct fee? Probably because he would likely struggle to generate sufficient revenue to cover his overheads, let alone make a buck.
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13 years ago

Andy Phillipson
Des - I think you are doing the public and the industry as a whole a great disservice. You are repeating the same mistakes that the investment market did; you are allowing unqualified mums and dads to do full needs analysis' and buy accordingly, WITHOUT qualified advice. I believe that of all the investments that went sour for mums and dads over recent years, 70% were done without the guidance from advisors! Where is this heading? Simple. When it all turns to custard and the public start bleeting on about bad insurance companies and policies, the GOOD advisers will be blamed, and another round of draconian legislation will cause more pain and anguish to us. Rather than waiver responsibility and leave it up to the clients, why don't we embrace the education we have and use it to our clients' advantage. And if we earn good money for it, what a bonus. I challenge you to try getting good advice from a lawyer or accountant for nothing! If you feel guilty earning a commission - change your charging structure or get out of the industry. I think the biggest paradigm shift now is that we have to work for our commission. This is good for us, good for the industry, and best of all - good for our clients.
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13 years ago

Ray Storey
Well it actually does work, but this guys site is terriblly designed, so yes, in his case, I doubt it'll work. All you old farts don't seem to realise GenY doesn't buy stuff like a Baby Boomer does, they use the net to research everything. Why wouldn't you.
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13 years ago

Ray Storey
I've seen stats that show many 1000's of searches are done each month in NZ for terms like "life insurance" and "buy health insurance". What you are failing to understand is, if you don't know where to go to get something, and you're under 40, you google it. You may not do the whole thing on line, but you do find out where you go next. If you can't be found online, you don't exist in the mind of a Y'er.
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13 years ago

Ray Storey
If you're only doing paid search then you doing it wrong. The tone of several of these comments seems to be suggest a lack of understanding of how online can help offline. The web is your friend in this business not your enemy.
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13 years ago

Jim Dowsett
What a plonker. The old 'flog the product with no advice' story. Pull your head in Morgan and join the real world,. Real advisors get paid relative to the value they bring to the relationship, including a proper needs analysis. We don't flog product through websites anonymously with out giving profesional advice. Good luck as you go broke!
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13 years ago

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