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Consumers reject traditional life insurance selling

Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006

Many consumers are moving towards less face-to-face ways of purchasing life insurance.

A study by consultancy Deloitte reveals that many insurance providers are also starting to realise the advantages of not selling via intermediaries Decline' of face-to-face insurance sales. This means that products such as life insurance are more likely to be sold in similar ways to car and home cover i.e. on the telephone or internet.

Traditional face-to-face sales currently account for 72 per cent of retail insurance sales in the UK and almost 90 per cent of sales of more complex products such as pensions.

However, just 39 per cent of sales for personal lines insurance are now conducted face-to-face, compared to 84 per cent in 1991.

Meanwhile, face-to-face sales of life insurance products have fallen from 96 per cent in 1994 to just 62 per cent.

"The decline of face to face distribution has been seen across personal lines insurance as direct channels such as telephone and internet have emerged," said Mark FitzPatrick, head of insurance at Deloitte.

"It is now possible that personal pensions and annuities distribution will follow suit to some extent. The question is not if this will change, but when it will happen and to what extent," he added.


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