Insurance agents – are they still needed in times of the Internet?

The client trusts and doesn’t check
ECCO Poland | on board Think Kong launched the “A good agent. A good advisor” campaign for insurer MetLife Poland

Poles are not aware of what they should expect from an insurance advisor when choosing life insurance – results from the MetLife survey, conducted as part of the campaign “A good agent. A good advisor”. Only one in four respondents expects an agent to be interested in their personal situation. Meanwhile, what stage of life we are currently at, both professionally and privately, is crucial when choosing the best suited offer. “A good agent. A good advisor” is supposed to make us aware of the importance of the role of advisors and how to recognize one that will help us take good care of financial security.

According to a study commissioned by MetLife, 84% of respondents trust their insurance agent. Over 60% of the respondents believe that the role of an advisor is important in the process of choosing and buying life insurance. At the same time, only 26% of the respondents expect their personal situation to be of interest to an insurance agent. This shows that we often do not realize what is really important when matching the best offer for us, we do not know what are the criteria under which  the insurance advisors operate and consequently we do not fully know what to expect from them.

“Through the campaign “Good Agent. Good Advisor” campaign we want to make the public aware of the role of insurance agents and thus build awareness of what we can and should even expect from them. We are pleased that the profession of an insurance advisor is nowadays associated with  a high level of trust, now we want to work on making it possible for clients to know how to make full use of the potential of this relationship,” says Magdalena Brzozowska-Tomczyk, Director of the Individual Client Division at MetLife.

Life, health and pension insurance are unique tools that are designed to secure the future of our people and our loved ones in case of illness or other unforeseen events. That’s why choosing the right policy is extremely important. A contract is usually signed for many years, so it is important to make a good choice and avoid a situation in which the policy does not adequately protect all our interests. In order to make a tailored offer, it is necessary to have an in-depth knowledge of the customers, how they spend their time, what their passions are, and even what diseases have occurred in their family. All these circumstances should be taken into account when talking to an agent and choosing the policy. Otherwise, you may find that the insurance does not provide the protection you expected.

The consequences of a mismatched policy are borne by the client. So,  who is responsible for purchasing such insurance? In most cases, clients do not know what are the key factors influencing the insurance parameters, so it is the agent’s responsibility to know the client’s life situation and make the necessary adjustments..

Meanwhile, the MetLife survey showed that when considering choosing the right insurance, as many as 42% of respondents would not plan or are not convinced that they would want to use an expert’s assistance. This figure rises to 62% of those who have not bought life insurance in the last 5 years.

“A good advisor is one who conducts a thorough interview and listens to the client’s needs in order to prepare a personalized, i.e. tailored insurance offer. With our campaign, we want to show what a professional service should look like, because the success of buying the right insurance requires cooperation of both parties. At MetLife we care about the highest standards of service and this should be common in our industry, but it is important that customers are also aware of what they should expect from an insurance advisor”, adds Magdalena Brzozowska-Tomczyk.