04 Sep The importance of advice and the risks associated with buying direct insurance
Check the policy before buying any insurance, writes Lesley Parker. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/money/planning/price-isnt-everything-20120821-24j39.html#ixzz24teIWQna The huge growth in ''direct'' selling of insurance, and the high-rotation television advertising allied with that, has attracted the attention of financial services regulators. They are keeping an eye on both the quality of the products being sold and the depth of information consumers are getting. ''Direct life insurance business has been growing at a high rate and is now a significant proportion of the retail market,'' an executive group member of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Ian Laughlin, told a conference recently. ''We are concerned that the quality of the products and of the business being written may be poor in some cases. We see examples of expensive products and high [policy] discontinuance rates.'' The commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Peter Kell, says there's nothing intrinsically wrong...