Consumers less confident buying insurance online

The survey, conducted in December 2017 by market research firm Pureprofile, found that 66.8 per cent of people would be confident buying either life insurance or income protection cover online without seeing an adviser.

Results from a previous survey (conducted by the same research firm in December 2016) found 72 per cent of people were confident purchasing such policies without consulting an adviser – approximately 5 percentage points more than this years’ figures.

The percentage of Australians unwilling to pay for financial advice regarding life insurance remained stagnant at 56 per cent from December 2016 to December 2017.

According to the latest survey data, 43.6 per cent of those who do receive advice about life insurance do so online, while 37.6 per cent see a financial adviser, and 33.3 per cent get their advice from their family.