As Ageas comes of age, new broom Steve Casey reveals to Paul Robertson his hopes for providers' future.
There are also moves afoot to help distributors. “I think they need to get off the heroin of indemnity commission. This year we will be working with distributors, looking at ways we can better meet their cashflow needs for their individual businesses. By distributors, I mean some of the bigger, directly authorised IFAs, as well as some of the networks. Of course, the general IFA will be able to come to us as normal.”
While remaining committed to the IFA market, Casey is unashamedly open to selling Ageas products advice-free, as well.
“I believe in these methods because they act to give the consumer choice. If somebody is financially savvy and confident and is happy to deal and purchase on a non-advised basis, then we should give them the products that enable them to do that. If people want to use a professional intermediary and receive a full-advised service, then we should offer them similar products.”
Of course, the market is blurring here, as the more adventurous IFAs are beginning to strike deals with aggregator sites, white-labelling their systems to offer a non-advice service alongside advice.
While these moves are partly as a result of changing remuneration patterns post-RDR, Casey is a fan of them on their own terms and says Ageas would tend towards using both routes to the consumer.
He adds: “We are reassessing what we are going to be doing with the aggregator sites in future, but what IFAs like Plan Money and Paying Too Much have done is fantastic. This form of organisation offers another avenue to the consumer. I think that particular model of doing business is here to stay.”
Systems battleground
It is almost impossible to talk to any insurer nowadays without technology rearing its head. The days of paper processing are fading fast, and systems have become possibly the main battleground, after product, as providers seek to distinguish themselves in the market.
While the use of aggregators is possibly the biggest potential growth area, there are few other new technologies in the market. So, has technology finished?
“I think that, in general, it is going to be difficult to make big-step changes. Moving forwards, we are looking at more evolution rather than revolution in the market,” Casey says.
“I can see a lot more joining up of differing systems, though, so we may see the intermediary pair with the aggregator, then with the portal then going through to the provider. That information would also be a two-way street, rather than the one way it is at the moment.
