There are several good studies which try to determine what ‘advice’ really is – meaning, how customers perceive and value advice, rather than the legal definitions which have come to dominate discussion.

A recent claims controversy in Australia underlines the need for insurance definitions to bear a resemblance to the words used by most humans in their day-to-day lives – or very clear explanations of the differences.

The alternative title of this piece is 'What crowdfunding and insurance calculators have taught me about what a useful amount of life insurance is'.

So you want to grow? That will mean new things – unless you have been on a consistent, year-on-year 10%+ growth track for a while and you simply need to keep turning the handle you will need new ideas.

So you want to grow?

There has been so much product and pricing activity recently it has been hard to keep track of it all.

Over the past few weeks there has been so much product and pricing activity it has been hard to keep track of it all. In strict alphabetical order the companies that have made changes include: AIA, Accuro, AMP, Asteron Life, BNZ Life, CIGNA, and Sovereign.

More people are broke – and more people are wealthy – meaning more diverse choices for excess levels and waiting periods

With the growth of the internet and changing consumption patterns it can be hard work connecting with potential customers. Russell Hutchinson discusses some of the options available to advisers.

One commentator I read, who happens to be a big fan of robo-advice, talked excitedly about how it solves all those messy compliance problems caused by forgetful – or conflicted – humans.

What exactly is roboadvice? Is it even legal?

The Issues Paper for the Review of the Financial Advisers Act 2008 and the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008 is now out.

I spent a couple of hours recently with the managing director of a large general insurance brokerage in Australia discussing various problems with their referral programmes to advisers offering life, health and other personal insurance advice. We have both worked on quite a few referral programmes and comparing those that work, with those that don’t work, here is our list of the main problems and what to do about them.

Do you think people today are sicker than they used to be just 50 years ago? If not, why are there more of them off work?

An evergreen theme is to ensure you do the basics well. Clients appreciate it when you make things easy for them. The struggle is how to achieve that when almost everyone seems intent on making insurance cover more complicated – insurers and regulators are just two.

Russell Hutchinson provides an example of why the policy wording of some income protection products should be changed.