Nearly half of Britons (46%) think that they over-complicate the industry and 48 % claim that they would be more likely to buy life insurance if the process was made simpler and could be done online.
The research of over 5,000 British adults found that a third (31%) believe that Independent Financial Advisors slow down the process of taking out cover and are there purely to “make money for themselves and third parties” (54%). 39% of those questioned admit that IFAs make them feel like they do not know what they’re doing.
Matthew Gledhill, Managing Director of Beagle Street, commented:
“It cannot be right that a financial service has become so complicated that over the last twenty years a separate industry of advisors has grown up just to explain it. We aim to shake up the market by using technology to offer a simple, friendly and affordable way to get life insurance, which we hope will make the old bureaucratic approach extinct.”
The research comes following news that independent financial advisors complete with shiny suits, briefcases and chunky calculators have joined Tyrannosaurs, Triceratops and Velociraptors in a new exhibition. Online life insurance company Beagle Street are holding the exhibiton featuring out of date animals at the Dinosaur Museum in Dorset.
The exhibition placard reads:
‘Independent Financial Advisors were a complex group of animals that first appeared in the pre-internet age. They were the dominant terrestrial financial advisors in a world where financial products were so complicated an entire industry was created just to explain them. The birth of Beagle Street, an online life insurance company, that offered simple, friendly and affordable service led to the extinction of most Independent Financial Advisors by the end of 2014.’
Gledhill continues:
“There has been a chronic lack of innovation in the life insurance market, which we believe under-serves its customers. Beagle Street is for people who want cover, but are currently put off by the complication, impersonal and expensive service traditional life insurance companies offer. Our technology enables us to strip out the meetings, medicals and middlemen to make the process of buying life insurance as simple and affordable as possible. Our ambition is to be the most customer centric provider in the market – enabling people to get on and enjoy life knowing their family is covered if they die. We check in with our customers to ensure they are happy with the service and proactively search the death register to ensure that if our customers die their beneficiaries are notified and can make a claim.”
