Here’s what consumers want: CEO of Allianz Life at the KPMG event

0


[ad_1]

What would you like to know

  • Jasmine Jirele says consumers want to understand why they need life insurance and annuities.
  • Ed Chanda wonders what will happen if people continue to work from home.
  • Martin Kelly says the supply of block annuities in the market far exceeds the supply of capital from potential buyers.

The manager of a large annuity issuer says the nature of annuity and annuity payout is changing because that’s what customers want.

Jasmine Jirele, CEO of Allianz Life of North America, discussed the cast earlier this week in a session at KPMG’s 33rd Annual Insurance Conference.

Jirele, who has been named to succeed Walter White as head of the Minneapolis-based arm of the German Allianz, spoke about insurance agents, financial advisers and financial planners when Jill Farrington, a partner at KPMG, asked her about it.

“At one point, we had more traditional insurance agents in our distribution network,” Jirele said. “However, over time that mix has really changed.”

Today, she said, Allianz Life has a large base of distribution relationships that includes financial advisers and planners as well as agents.

“It has certainly helped to integrate our insurance products into a more holistic financial planning process, which is one of the things we hear and see customers demanding,” added Jirele. “Historically, insurance products were really sold and bought on an ad hoc basis, not necessarily as part of an integrated plan. Increasingly, clients are turning to advisors to help them understand all the different needs they are trying to solve and all the different risks they are trying to manage. And, frankly, where and how insurance works best.

Here are some other points made by Jirele and other speakers at the KPMG conference, which attracted around 600 life industry executives, investors and consultants as registrants.

1. Providing a great customer experience takes more than outperforming other life insurers.

Jirele said consumers want a better, simpler experience and don’t just compare Allianz Life with other financial services companies.

“They think about ‘What’s the last product I bought online'” or how they solved a problem by texting, Jirele said.

“We really need to improve our game,” she said.

She said Allianz Life is pursuing this goal by doing a much better job of obtaining a customer’s mobile phone number, email addresses and other “digital identifiers” at the point of sale.

2. The effects of working from home as a result of COVID-19 can be at least in part positive.

Ed Chanda, KPMG’s chief insurance practice, said he was concerned that working from home was becoming a habit.

“The longer you stay there, the more you will get used to it,” he said.

[ad_2]

Share.

Leave A Reply