RISK
30 September 2019
Rewarding clients for living a healthy lifestyle
Offering simplicity and convenience to the broker MoneyMarketing recently attended the Johannesburg launch of 1Life’s new digital intermediary platform that takes a new approach to the market.
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arlier this year, Liberty introduced a wellness bonus for its customers to add on to their Lifestyle Protector risk products. Now, clients can receive cash-back benefits after five years. Liberty hasn’t launched its own wellness programme but has rather chosen to recognise two external wellness programmes and use client data from both the Discovery and Momentum wellness programmes. Liberty’s Divisional Executive: Retail Solutions Shared Value, Nalen Naidoo, sees his company’s wellness bonus as a major innovation in the way long-term insurers reward their clients for living a healthy lifestyle. “Critical here is that we think customers should have the freedom to choose whichever wellness programme they want to take part in. They shouldn’t have to have the same provider for their wellness programme and for their life cover. And they should be free to share their data.” Explaining how the Lifestyle Protector Wellness Bonus works, Naidoo says a client must have a Liberty Lifestyle Protector policy with qualifying benefits and be a member of a wellness programme that Liberty recognises. When a Lifestyle Protector Wellness Bonus feature is added to a Lifestyle Protector policy, the client will contribute an additional 5% of qualifying monthly premiums. To get the most out of the Lifestyle Protector Wellness Bonus, a client should engage in healthy behaviour, have it measured through his/her wellness programme, and look to improve or maintain his/ her Liberty Wellness Score. During the development of the Lifestyle Protector Wellness Bonus, Naidoo says Liberty noted how clients appreciated having guaranteed life cover that wouldn’t unexpectedly change over time. He adds that some traditional solutions that incorporate wellness programmes and insurance products give customers a potential upside but also usually have downside risks, such as
future premium increases or reductions in cover, relative to original quotes. This impacts most on people who, despite good intentions, are not able to manage their wellness status into the top tiers, sometimes for reasons out of their control. “If something happens and you can no longer engage in a healthy lifestyle, we don’t think you should be penalised,” Naidoo says. He explains that while doing research to develop the Lifestyle Protector Wellness Bonus, clients indicated that they did not want yet another rewards programme, but they still wanted to enjoy rewards. Off the back of this, it was decided that clients could use the wellness status from other programmes, such as the ones provided by Discovery and Momentum. “Our customers told us they wanted choice, and that is what we are giving them,” Naidoo says. Discovery, however, is unhappy and is taking Liberty to court, arguing that Liberty is appropriating its intellectual property. Liberty sees this as action by a competitor as an attempt to limit competition in the long-term insurance market. “Independent legal experts have already opined on intellectual property law and we think the situation is very clear. The core discussion here is that customers have rights of access and portability around their own data,” Naidoo says. “Our strong view is that if you are contributing to a program and putting in all the hard work to live healthily, then surely the measure of how hard you’ve worked should belong to you – and you can use it wherever you wish, including coming to get life cover at Liberty,” he adds.
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Nalen Naidoo, Divisional Executive: Retail Solutions Shared Value, Liberty
“In a market that is dominated by incentive-based reward, there is often not enough focus by insurers on providing solutions that improve broker productivity and deepen client engagement through an easier, shorter and less expensive client journey,” says Kobus Wentzel, Head of Distribution at 1Life. He was speaking at the launch of 1Life Vantage, a new digital intermediary solution for brokers and financial advisers. “We identified a core need to service this market more effectively and, through technology, we are enabling speed and efficiency in the underwriting and financial advice process and believe that 1Life Vantage is a technology solution that will lead the way.” 1Life Vantage is aimed at enabling financial advisers to provide superior financial planning, product advice and ongoing product service to customers for long-term insurance and investment products. Wentzel explains that it’s “a revolutionary mobile application currently on tablets and notebooks – to be made available via smartphones and desktop in the near future - that enables a holistic view of the client and enables in-depth conversations leading to the delivery of the right financial products and superior advice, for ultimate peace of mind and sound financial strategies. Furthermore, not only does it offer endto-end simplicity and convenience, but the process is fast connecting the right information to the right people.” He adds that it’s critically important, however, that 1Life understands and recognises that the adviser is the expert in advice and as such, 1Life Vantage is a solution that simplifies and supports the financial advice process by enabling speed and efficiency. The solution also aims to provide advisers the opportunity to service more clients through a robust, integrated technology solution that enhances face-toface engagements. “This is critical today, where advisers are operating in an onthe-go culture with an ever more demanding customer base,” Wentzel explains. Through the digital and paperless, cloud-based application 1Life has reinvented existing processes to deliver straight through processing, speed and convenience. Furthermore, the solution offers a simplified, real-time underwriting process – allowing products to be structured without intensive administration. “This makes insurance easier to buy and improves the access and affordability of products,” he adds. Critically important for advisers, however, is that through the four commission models available to advisers, not only is 1Life able to provide daily commission payments as well as – through its premium commission model – provide advisers with protection against commission risk, but the model also provides the adviser with simplicity and convenience in a structure that suits how they wish to run their own individual business. “The solution also ensures real-time access and amendments to be made to client portfolios, as well as provides instant and interactive diary management – directly from the application,” Wentzel says. However, critical to this is that trust is central to this process and so, 1Life ensures no disintermediation by ring-fencing advisers’ clients so that they cannot fall into the direct 1Life channel. “Technology evolution is critical in the insurance space and, as a business backed by a global brand, we are focused on delivering solutions that are technology centric, but that also provide ease and convenience so that we can change lives. However, we also realise that the technology transformation we are encouraging advisers to take can be overwhelming and so, 1Life Vantage provides all advisers with relationship consultants to ensure that the onboarding of such technology and the transition is smooth and that any queries or questions can be addressed in real-time,” continues Wentzel. He believes that 1Life Vantage will become a catalyst for change in the insurance sector in the near future, as advisers become familiar with the technology, use it and reap the benefits of its speed and convenience. “As this shift happens, I believe we will see the market Kobus swing in the same way and we look forward to what Wentzel, this solution can offer the insurance sector and, of Head of course, the client base that we serve,” he adds. Distribution, 1Life
