A couple of weeks ago, Forbes.com ran a pretty compelling article on what the life insurance industry is doing wrong – and how it can do it better.
(The fact that I'd call something like this "compelling" kind of goes against the article's lead – "Let's face it: Nobody gets excited about life insurance." But that's a bit beside the point.)
To me, the most fascinating parts of the argument lie in what the article's authors, Michael Costonis and David P. Shatto, don't suggest.
First, to briefly sum up the gist of the piece:
- Accenture (Costonis and Shatto's employer) recently surveyed "more than 5,600 consumers in 14 countries, covering 10 industry sectors, to explore how the current economic downturn has influenced consumer behavior. Of those 5,600 consumers, we asked approximately 2,500 to evaluate their life insurance providers."
- Only 16 percent of those consumers said they had any real interest in their life insurance providers.
- Only a quarter of all respondents had changed their mix of providers in the previous six to 12 months, but…
- … still, just 34 percent of consumers said they were satisfied with their services, and a mere 25 percent said they'd recommend their provider to others.
- One of the only industry that did worse than insurance? Gas and electric providers.
So I'm sitting here thinking about some of their recommendations – improve pricing and price comparison shopping, sell insurance directly to the consumer for convenience sake, taking advantage of social networking and other tools consumers frequently use in their day-to-day lives.
And I'm thinking… where's the producer in all this?
I have to admit, I haven't a clue what's going on with my life insurance policy. I know I have some, albeit just a little bit, through my employer. I know it doesn't cost me much, but that it wouldn't give me much, either – and I also know that's kind of OK at the moment because I have no dependents, I'm not married, I don't own a home, etc.
But I wonder how many other people who should have more life insurance – those who earn an income that others rely on, for instance – don't. And how many of them don't know that. How many of them hear from their providers? Adding the producer back into the equation, how many of them hear from you?
