Advisers encouraged to use tele-interviewing for risk insurance

Speaking to ifa, TAL's general manager of distribution, Niall McConville, said tele-interviewing has several benefits for advisers, placing greater responsibilities on the insurer during the underwriting process.

"I think it removes the duty of disclosure from the adviser and [puts it] completely on the life office and the client," Mr McConville said.

Then, the adviser does not have to worry about a client coming back to them after having a claim rejected due to non-disclosure since they can say they told them everything, he explained.

"We record everything whereas not all advisers record everything. We can then send the adviser a copy of that recording and keep them in the loop," he said.

Mr McConville said that by removing the duty of disclosure from the adviser through tele-interviewing, professional indemnity insurers may see the chances of a claim being made against an insured adviser as being reduced.

"A client won't be able to claim on an adviser's PI because the adviser wasn't a part of the process," he said.

"[Then possibly], later down the line, PI insurers may offer cheaper PI insurance [to an adviser] if they use tele-interviewing. Logic says that is a possibility," he said.

Mr McConville acknowledged, however, that some advisers may be against the idea of using tele-interviewing because in the past clients have bad experiences with it.

"A couple of years ago when tele-interviewing started to get a bit of traction in the marketplace, the life offices didn't do it all that well and some of their clients might not have had the best experience," he said.

"But we have gotten a lot better at it now and the experience for clients is a lot better and advisers are starting to trust life insurance companies more to do their tele-interviewing."