Geoff Annals, chief executive at Accuro Health Insurance, said insurance and advisers had been in the spotlight in recent times “quite rightly” for a number of bad practises.
He said it was a major issue for a sector that relied on customer trust. “When people think about insurance they think it’s dodgy, not much better than used car sales.”
He said moves to require a higher standard – and proof of that, through increasing regulation, were a good thing.
“It doesn’t mean to say that advisers are bad. But for insurers and advisers, there are some bad practises. We need to up our game and more reliably deliver what consumers are looking for.”
Annals said there had always been advisers who were good and advisers who were less competent.
“We need the less competent to up their game or get out. But it’s no good us pointing the finger at advisers, we need to look at what we do.”
He said when advisers were delivering insurers’ products, the providers had responsibility, too. They needed to ensure that clients had the right information and could find products that suited.
“Our remuneration should reflect that. That’s one of the things insurers can be criticised for. If we remunerate without requiring evidence that the service we expect has been delivered, we should be in the gun, too. “
