[GRTV] AIA explains the evolution of industry change

Philip Macalister sat down with AIA’s Chief Partnership Development Officer, Sharron Botica, to discuss the evolution of change in the insurance industry, the challenges of how it has impacted business, the growth of AIA Insurance, and what it means for advisors. Talk about what it means.

Friday, April 28, 2023 at 2:58 PM

Botica took over the role six months ago and says it focuses on the business of advisors in the marketplace and how the evolving insurance industry is changing what that means.

She says one of the challenges facing both advisors and their clients is affordability due to the cost of living crisis.

“With so many advisory firms having bigger books and bigger customer bases, the AIA will use and share some of the strategies and initiatives we have seen in the past in terms of retention and engagement. We focus on how we can support these advisors through our knowledge with our customers.”

Some of these initiatives, she says, come in the form of data technology, but it’s really about forming the right relationships with clients, which is at the heart of advisor engagement. said to be part.

“At AIA, we are proud and strongly considering propositions to the market that also serve from the overall well-being of our clients and advisors. Things like multi-contract discounts, air point attachments, optional vitality (programs) are added to the insurance, which are not leads, but offer discounts to customers as well.All that wraps them up is It’s a compelling proposition.”

Of these proposals, AIA’s Vitality Program Botica said more than 40,000 New Zealanders now have the program attached to their policy and the AIA continues to look at ways to expand it. Her Weekly Active rewards are also popular for wearing her over 6,000 of her Apple Watches on the wrists of Kiwis covered by the Vitality program policy.

“Sometimes we are one of the biggest distributors of Apple Watches, and that really helps motivate our customers to get involved in our policy.”

According to her, the Apple Watch is a big motivator for her clients, but weekly active rewards for reaching active rewards points were also high on the list.

In the world of claims, Botica says it’s interesting to see their primary cause of complaints come on par with both the musculoskeletal system and mental health.

“For the last few years, it’s been musculoskeletal then mental health.”

She says there may be many driving factors, including the openness of the mental health debate and the fact that more mental health claims are being paid as part of TBC’s billings.

“Historically, we haven’t seen that in the past,” Botica says.

As for AIA’s future growth, Botica said it plans to conduct mental health research and it will be interesting to see how much the data changes with industry changes like Covid and regulatory changes.

“Although we cannot predict it yet, we do know that a quarter of respondents are considering taking a break from the industry, which is bringing in more new and younger advisors. ”

tag: GRTV

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