"Insurers must be proactive, ensuring that customers know what services are available to them; what information they should be sharing with their insurer; and the easiest way for them to do so."
Described as ‘the biggest reform to insurance contract law in more than a century’, the Act states that insurers must facilitate a two-way exchange of information with customers, and be categorically proven to have happened.
Fair disclosure and presentation of information has to occur from both sides, with insurers and their customers needing to share the right information at the right time. The onus will be on insurers to make information clear and readily available to customers; to make clear to customers what information both parties have to share, and when; and to be able to prove they are doing so.
Furthermore, insurers and their agents, or brokers, are now considered to have known, or ought to have known, something if a single employee knows it, meaning that internal communications must be tightened up. Without these precautions, GMC says that insurers could find themselves losing customers at best, and losing in court at worst.
GMC Software's Simon Perry said: “Like the Consumer Insurance Act before it, the Insurance Act 2015 forces insurers to treat customers as partners, to share more information and to provide understandable advice.
“Facilitating two-way customer engagement has become critical. Insurers must be proactive, ensuring that customers know what services are available to them; what information they should be sharing with their insurer; and the easiest way for them to do so. More than ever before, it’s crucial that information is clear, accurate and acted upon in good faith. The days of insurers using a rigid set of traditional communication platforms to share one-way messages is over: they must be able to engage with their customers over any channel, whether that’s telephone, email or messaging applications.”
