Sovereign: More support for advisers

Sovereign needs to look for ways it can support its advisers better as the industry evolves, its chief officer of customer management and product says.

Wednesday, March 18th 2015, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

Rebecca Russell said it was important to think about where the insurance industry’s next wave of growth was likely to come from and what it might look like.

She said: “What do we need to do to set ourselves up to take advantage of that?”

Customers were ready to embrace digital channels, she said, and the industry had to be ready to respond.

“Traditionally, as an industry we’ve been a bit slower in these spaces, understanding our customers and how their needs are changing. We can’t put people into a box anymore, being able to be quite flexible and create different options and respond in that way is key. Customers want us to be easy to deal with.”

She said customer expectations such as wanting policy wordings in plain English were reasonable but a significant change for the industry.

Sovereign would focus on how to help advisers deliver to their clients, she said.

“We need to look at ways to support advisers better. There’s a significant mindset change to encourage people to think differently. It’s about understanding the customer, getting out there, talking to them.”

Russell said part of supporting advisers would mean helping to generate new leads – encouraging the insurance market to grow by growing the Sovereign brand, driving awareness and helping advisers leverage business from that, she said. “Otherwise we won’t get the growth in the industry.”

Russell said the independent adviser channel was critical for Sovereign.

“That’s what our foundation is built on and will continue to be the heart of what we do. For us, it’s how we enable independent advisers to deliver to customers to help them grow and how we help them build their business. We’re looking at ways to revolutionise what we do and the way we do it and how we support advisers over the next five to 10 years to ensure we and they have a sustainable model.”

Tags: Life insurance Sovereign