More Aussies buying life insurance online: Canstar

In the statement, Canstar said that findings from a recent NobleOak Life Insurance Whitepaper found that almost 50 per cent of people seeking life insurance would be happy to buy it online, and that one third of people are already researching their options online.

NobleOak Life chief executive Anthony Brown said that the life insurance buying process is being heavily disrupted by digital technology.

"Customer behaviour is rapidly transforming the industry and driving insurers to be more digitally innovative; 32 per cent of people seeking to obtain financial advice for life insurance use the internet to do so," Mr Brown said.

Canstar awarded NobleOak Life its 2016 Outstanding Value – Direct Life Insurance award, based on its annual research of direct life insurance policies.

Canstar’s research also found evidence of policies offering impressive levels of coverage and additional features for very reasonable annual premiums, the statement said.

Mitchell Watson, Canstar's group manager for research and ratings, said that direct life insurance policies have become increasingly feature-rich over the past 12 months.

"We are seeing a greater number of funds offering optional extras such as funeral insurance, trauma cover and total and permanent disability cover," Mr Watson said.

"We are also seeing an increase in the maximum sum insured value, an increase in the number of funds offering guaranteed future insurability and premium waiver under certain conditions."

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].