Insurance Marketing Firms, Don’t Mis-Sell Insurance Policies

Regardless of how robust the insurance regulations are, mis-selling the insurance policies is a common fault that has ruined several insurance marketing firms. IMFs must always make sure that none of their insurance policies are mis-sold to the customers because in the long run, it will be-smirch the name of their insurance intermediary firm.

Insurance policies are quite complex to understand, and by complexity we mean that in most cases, most of what is written in those policies goes over the head of most customers. What they rely on for the explanation of that information is you, the IMF or any other insurance intermediary. It is your job to ensure that customers don’t buy the wrong insurance policy.

As an Insurance Marketing firm, you have the right to engage with an insurance agent to sell the insurance policies of the insurance companies who have agreement with you. However, mis-selling is an issue rooted in the false nature of that agent.

Let us first discuss the meaning of mis-selling insurance policies.

What does it mean by mis-selling insurance policies?

In simple terms, mis-selling is mistakenly selling the insurance policies to the customers that do not fit their requirement. Simply put, the final reward of that policy is different from what the customer initially thought. When it fails to meet the customer’s purpose, it is your Insurance Marketing firm that can get into trouble.

But how does that happen? Well, as an Insurance Marketing Firm, you do not directly sell insurance policies. Instead, you reach out to an insurance agent (not a corporate agent, but an individual agent) and then, he is the one who sells those policies.

When it comes deliberately mis-selling, the techniques agents use tend to be around:

• Creating false benefits by taking advantage of the customer’s lack of education, or understanding of the legal terminologies.
• Exaggerating the benefits customers can gain using terms that aren’t even described in the policy.
• Misrepresenting the insurance policy to give put the customer under a false sense of security
• Bundling insurance policies where the agent ‘bundles-up’ different aspects of different insurance policies and present them as a package
• Miscalculating the benefits of the insurance policies
• Providing false information and false bonuses for insurance policies

What can be the causes behind mis-selling insurance policies?

The insurance market is filled with competitive aspects. There were days where one couldn’t sell even one policy without some miracles happening in the background. Furthermore, the introduction of insurance e-commerce has also played a major factor in increasing competition in this domain.

And many aren’t too happy about it.

Instead of focusing on creating better products and providing the right information to the users via the website, they still seek to engage with them using manipulative tactics. These tactics range from falsifying insurance information in the documents of insurance policies to promising bonuses that can’t exist in the first place.

Furthermore, there have been many cases of tampering with the proposal and forging the documents. However, it is not only the fault of the insurance agent, the insurance marketing firm can be the one to take the blame as well.

How can mis-selling insurance policies negatively impact your business?

Mis-selling the insurance policies can have a severe impact on your IMF. But before we tell you about the damage that you can face, let us give you a moment to empathize with the customer.

For a customer, the issues that comes from buying the wrong insurance policies entail the following:

• Financial losses because the premium paid goes to waste
• The features and benefits become of no use to the customer
• When the customer realizes the wrongness of an insurance policy, they can stop the insurance premiums. However, unless they can bear some deductions, all that premium is lost.

For you, the impact might be quite fruitful, but in the long term, it can destroy your insurance marketing firm.

• Lack of trust in the market: It is not the insurance company that wears the blame of insurance policies, it is insurance intermediaries. Thus, if word gets out that your IMF is responsible for the mis-selling, the trust factor you have in the market will change for the worse.
• IRDA penalty: IRDA is the regulatory authority that monitors the conduct of all insurance intermediaries. Wherever customer complaints are concerned, it is the body that ultimately deals with them. IRDA can impose severe penalties on you if your code of conduct deviates from what is expected.

However, running a firm is a big deal. And we understand that ensuring that all the policies are sold correctively is a task that can be hard, especially in a competitive market.

Therefore, there exists ways by which you can prevent such incidents from happening.

Preventing Insurance Mis-Selling; The IMF Guide

To prevent selling the wrong insurance policies, you have to just have yourself one question –

How knowledgeable am I about the insurance policies I am selling?

And then, if your intentions are clear, you can follow the steps below to sell the right policies to the right customers:

• Make your insurance portal as robust as possible, but stay within the IRDA regulations
• Provide write-ups and blogs (not marketing oriented) that can inform the customer
• Team up with insurance web aggregators. Their platforms can help dispense information to the customers in an ethical manner.
• Provide a standardized script for every insurance policy. Make sure that it contains all the benefits, services and key disclosures.
• Being vigilant about the insurance marketing firm’s business structure and the willingness to aid the customer is the only method to prevent selling the wrong insurance policies.

Conclusion

Always conduct business with ethics in mind. As an Insurance Marketing Firm, the services you provide are vast and your potential to expand is large. Therefore, you must always ensure that you follow the regulations to the tee when selling insurance policies.