Which to choose, insurance advisor in your home or virtual insurance advisor?

BY ANDREW STEWART

Times are changing and moving faster and faster (like you haven’t noticed). I’ve been an advisor for some time now and just within the last two years alone there has been so much change in the insurance industry that the general public isn’t even aware of. Specifically, I want to talk about the way you and I can and will be able to purchase life insurance in the future. Life insurance is a difficult subject, it is a decision we all have to make, and a thing we all should have. Whether it be a simple policy that will pay out when we die so that our families are not overly burdened by our passing or investment for our retirement.

In simple terms, the role of an advisor, agent, or broker is to explain the difficult language, clauses, contracts, exceptions and options available to the public. They are there as a protection to make sure that you connect with the policy that suits you best, not one that suits the pockets of the insurance company better. You are probably used to or believe that you have to find yourself insurance agent, and they would come around to your house, partake in a coffee and some biscuits while they laid out their plans and proposals on your dining table. This interaction can be frightening for both parties. More than likely, your insurance advisor was maybe a referral or local person you found on the internet. There is an infamous joke by Woody Allen “There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance agent?”

Industry norm would be the advisor would contact you, arrange a time for them to come around and then spend the evening going over the facts they were ready to present you with. You might feel under a little pressure to sign something before the evening was out. If you didn’t sign the contract you would spend the next couple of months avoiding them and their phone calls. It wasn’t exactly the best way to spend the evening. In today’s world (the digital age) it doesn’t need to work like that anymore. We expect someone who is providing us with a service to have a world of technology at their fingertips, to be able to offer us an answer to any question. We expect them to be there when we decide, not a time and place that suits them. We have the ability to research facts or strategies they will inform us. Most importantly, we have the choice to say yes, or to say no, to move on and find someone else to help us – no hard feelings.

Our lives are busy, in short, we want answers to be fast, efficient and accurate. Minimize the social chit-chat, we are discussing business, and when we are finished, we want to continue with our normal lives satisfied with a job well done – mission accomplished.

Working with an advisor that offers virtual meetings is the way of the future. It’s a time saver and convivence unparalleled for all parties involved. Other industries like real-estate and home and auto insurance have been doing this already for some time but buying and selling life insurance is different. One of the biggest questions on any application that the advisor had to answer was regarding your identification. We always had to have seen and held your identification in our hands. Not anymore, we can now professionally convey the facts and figures, discuss your concerns and worries, make suggestions about policies and terms let you make the decision and complete an application without even having to see your face or identification.

There is no pressure to sign anything before they leave, you can pick up the conversation tomorrow or whenever you’re ready. Of course, you lose that personal touch that you get from a visiting advisor. But ask yourself a question; what is the best way to spend your time? Did you ask the person from the phone company to come round for dinner when you were deciding which cellphone plan to choose?