Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Online purchase of insurance in USA

The population of USA is 300 million. 70% have internet access, or 210 million.

36% have looked for information on insurance during the past 24 months. 6% have bought insurance online.

The most popular life insurance products are:

* life insurance
* disability insurance
* long term care
* critical illness
* annuity

5 comments:

  1. Hope you can start a portal to offer
    all kinds of insurance products so that we don't have to pay insurance agents high commissions which they don't deserve.

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  2. It seems that the percentage of insurance purchased online is small. It seems that the service of an Financial Adviser there is still relevant.

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  3. It is just starting and every thing
    has to start somewhere. People are getting tired of insurance agents
    who cannot deliver quality and value for money advice.
    In fact in most cases consumers decide what to buy and how much to buy and agents provide "execute only" service. Why pay them so high commission for filling up the forms?
    Claim service? Do you need them to do this? Do you buy because you hope to die so that the agents can show off how well and fast they can claim for you? Are they telling you that the insurance companies would not pay to the claimant without the agent? In the first place you have DIYed when you bought the policy why can't you DIY your claim too. A few phone calls here and there, you get everything done.
    I strongly believe that if we have been doing DIY and making those important decisions like what and how much to buy and the agents are useless and just providing only form filling service it is better to buy on line at steep discount or go to NTUC Business centre if they charge lower premium.
    US is showing the way and we should quickly adopt this model.

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  4. It's good to purchase online because we can skip a lot of unnecessary selling. I hope the number will increase over time! Times have changed already, big companies should start looking into this and provide such avenue for people.

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  5. Can start with simple products like
    home insurance, travel, PA, maid,
    motor,i-term,incomeshield, etc etc.
    These are simple and no brainer products which don't require an agent. Later introduce life insurance products and ILPs and unit trusts.
    Maybe , can operate like a pharmacy
    where customers come with a prescription of "cures and medicines" signed by a qualified
    financial planner.Responsibilty rests with the planner.

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