MBS is excited at the prospect of delivering better insurance outcomes to clients of Omnisure, providing a service and expertise to which they are accustomed, and one that is aligned with your offering.
We believe we are the right firm to deliver life insurance advice and ongoing portfolio management to your clients in a collaborative approach with your team. Client protection, be it business or personal, is clearly the cornerstone of your proposition. It is imperative to overlay the general insurance strategy with the appropriate life insurance strategy. MBS can provide a level of expertise, access, and specialised advice to complete the Omnisure proposition.
Omnisure’s client base is compatible with MBS’ existing operations and will complement our continued endeavour to deliver better outcomes to clients, facilitated by our scale.
These better outcomes manifest in:
discounted insurance products
retention discounts to existing policy holders
health loading discounts
dedicated underwriting
dedicated claims management
B2B solution
MBS has never deviated from remaining life insurance (only) specialists, and our established and successful joint ventures with wealth management and accounting firms, ensures that this remains our focus.
The MBS group has been built on a foundation of delivering our solution to leading wealth management and accounting firms. Since inception in 2006, we have operated in the knowledge that our management of their clients’ life insurance policies, reflects on the broader offering. We always operate in a manner that is protective of their clients, their reputation and their brand. This awareness has guided our culture, our operational capabilities and our advice expertise, and we pride ourselves on our client service.
Operational capabilities
Ease of Experience
MBS operates as a secondary advice practice, complementing the primary adviser relationship. This is not to downplay the importance of expertise, specialisation or, in fact, quality insurance advice and ongoing portfolio management. It is, however, this recognition that has been the operational driver to ensure the experience for the client is uncomplicated. Moving through the insurance process effectively, efficiently and painlessly for the client is paramount. At large, our industry has failed at this, which is why our focus is to change the perception that many clients may have from previous experiences. The ability to send nurses to your clients’ homes, along with Insurer connectivity, will be immediate service enhancements.
Compliance
As the custodians of well-known brands and their clients, our compliance requirements have always been managed with professionalism and proactivity. Like Omnisure, we recognise the importance and significance of the compliance function. Compliance is both procedural and behavioural and, as such, our systems, process, remuneration and governance are designed to enhance (not derail) the compliance function. Over the years, we have engaged Mills Oakley to consult on our processes as an added layer of due diligence. While internally auditing every file provides a level of comfort, it is our culture that is a key driver and, with management concentrated in our 40’s, we are compelled to instil discipline for longevity.
Salesforce and Accountability
Salesforce is a highly beneficial resource for our advisers, para planners, client services and management. In an adviser’s world, it provides live data, workflow tracking and the ability to proactively manage their client base. At a management level, Salesforce provides a high level of transparency and real-time activity and document tracking. The operational infrastructure is widely enjoyed by our advice and support teams, as they are provided the tools to appropriately manage their clients with current data and key metrics. This platform has enhanced our consistency and capability to scale.
Recognising the Need for Quality Advice and Ongoing Portfolio Management
Client Requirement
It is important that insurance advice remains appropriate, necessary, and reviewed (not set and forget). Life insurance, total and permanent disablement insurance, trauma insurance, income protection insurance, key person insurance and buy/sell insurance products are all designed to protect wealth. As such, insurance should be viewed as hedging (protecting the downside) and complementing the General Insurance strategy.
Not all clients of Omnisure will require advice, however many will require advice that is tailored to their needs. It is this advice that requires specialist knowledge of the client (Omnisure), as well as, the appropriate insurance strategy and access to products and pricing that is not available to the wider market (MBS). Clients will vary from executives, to wealth accumulators, those with gearing strategies, self-employed clients and family groups looking to attain intergenerational advice. As MBS has not marketed to the public, this is the client group that we retain, and have great experience in managing.
While I have touched on the ease of experience, it is worth reinforcing that our role is to make the experience seamless and painless for the client. The insurance that we specialise in does not have a call-to-action date (unlike general insurance) and, largely, clients are not eager to spend significant amounts of time moving through the process. This presents a risk that the client or business is exposed should the client suffer a health event prior to the cover being incepted. Our process has been continuously refined to ensure the right advice is underpinned by a streamlined process for the betterment of the client. This is aided by our access to preferential treatment across the insurance landscape due to our scale.
Life Insurance Market
It would be challenging to argue against the need for specialist life insurance advice and dedicated portfolio management in the current Australian landscape. Like mortgages, once upon a time, life insurance policies and portfolios would incur little change year-on-year and, as a consequence, it was common to see the ‘set and forget’ practice of many clients and advisers. With so many moving parts, and industry challenges and change, the practice of advisers delivering holistic advice (wealth creation and wealth protection) has come further into question.
The Insurers
In 2016, Macquarie Bank made the determination to exit life insurance, selling Macquarie Life to Zurich. Since then, a chain of industry events has seen a mass consolidation of life insurance companies – Nippon acquired MLC, AIA acquired CommInsure, TAL acquired Asteron, Zurich added OnePath (ANZ) to their stable and, more recently, AMP disposed of their life insurance arm to Resolution Life. In addition, a handful of boutique life insurers have emerged. However, it is the significant consolidation that has seen ‘the big four’ (AIA, TAL, MLC and Zurich) now manage over 80% of life insurance policies in Australia. However, M&A activity has not resolved the issue around sustainability and profitability.
The Industry
This consolidation has not been without challenge and uncertainty. With John Trowbridge’s delivery of the LIF (life insurance Framework) reforms and the Hayne Royal Commission, we are witnessing a once-in-a-generational shift in the distribution of life insurance. CBA, NAB, ANZ and AMP have transitioned away from their distribution, and traditional adviser distributors have deviated away due to complexity, the economic challenges of the increased cost of advice, commission compression and premium volatility.
Consistent with the intent of FASEA, it is our belief that the distribution of life insurance advice will become a specialised profession. Advisers who are more focused on wealth and those ‘one-man band’ (or smaller) practices will not have the scale or leverage to deliver clients better outcomes, in comparison to the dedicated practices of life insurance advice.
The Product
As if enough recalibration has not occurred, we expect the current mix of price/product to change significantly over the next 12 to 36 months. APRA’s statistical reporting on the industry products suggests the current model is broken, income protection in particular (beyond the recent intervention).
Perhaps this is the consequence of policy wording improvements to attract the best score from ratings agencies, the distribution exodus from the banking sector, the increased mental health claims and social pressure, increased challenges in the adviser model, or a combination of everything. Needless to say, the economics do not read well, and more change is on its way.
The impact of low interest rates is often missed in the economic commentary on life insurance. The current landscape, coupled with the significant reduction in distribution, caused APRA to intervene, and our expectation is that this may be required to occur again.
Our Focus on Better Outcomes
All is certainly not lost, and with every threat comes great opportunity. While there are many macro factors at play, our focus is strictly on delivering our clients better outcomes. We are forging ahead proactively to mitigate the impact on our clients via negotiated discounted premiums for both new and existing clients. This is all well and good, but we also need to be proactively engaging our clients about their circumstances and current portfolios. Once again, this was an industry that would see little change to policies year-on-year but this narrative certainly does not ring true for the next 36 months (at least).
Insurance portfolios should remain appropriate, necessary, and be reviewed by a speciality insurance advice practice.
Our scale, relative to the market, has provided us the opportunities to deliver better outcomes at the front end (ie policy terms and pricing) as well as claims management, which is often when expertise and specialised delivery is called upon. This pursuit will not cease as we continue to build our offering.
Scaling Up and Extending the National Delivery
Following the LIF reform, MBS observed an opportunity for specialist risk advice and a scaled proposition that would assist in enhanced client outcomes delivered by product manufactures. The strategy was established with a very deliberate ‘bottom up’ approach.
Prior to growing the client base, our focus and discipline guided our efforts to increase our capacity. This started with a significant investment into Salesforce, compliance, building out the para planning and client services teams, as well as commencing an Associate Adviser (intern) program. The ‘bottom up’ approach is certainly a more patient approach, however as a business-to-business firm it is paramount that we expand the capacity prior to increasing the client base. This ensures managed growth and, more importantly, protects the quality of the client service delivery and outcome.
With a National infrastructure, MBS would establish a dedicated team to work with Omnisure. This provides an opportunity to develop connectivity and consistency in the client experience. We would want to work with you to induct our team, to enhance the complementary nature of the offering, values and service standards your clients have come to expect.
Any advice in this site is of a general nature only and has not been tailored to your personal circumstances. Please seek personal advice prior to acting on this information. © MBS Insurance is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Bombora Advice Pty Ltd AFSL 439065