The Elusive U.S. Life-Insurance Purchaser
Report Summary
The Elusive U.S. Life-Insurance Purchaser
For life insurers, consumers who have never met with a salesperson represent a significant target.
Boston, January 11, 2012 – A new report from Aite Group analyzes consumer sentiments toward the U.S. life insurance market. Based on a November 2011 Aite Group survey of 1,024 U.S. consumers, the report discusses consumers’ reasons for seeking coverage and details how consumers interact with distributors and distribution organizations.
It is well understood in the life insurance industry that American consumers are not as well insured as they used to be, are not buying as much life insurance as they once did, and are certainly not buying as much as the life insurance industry would like them to. One of the main problems is that insurers have a hard time meeting with consumers. Most consumers report that they have never met with a life insurance salesperson; among that group, half do not own any form of life insurance. While consumers initiate their life-insurance-shopping processes in a wide variety of ways, 27% of consumers report that they have shopped for life insurance without following the process through to a final purchase.
“Clearly, opportunity exists among consumers who have never met with a salesperson,” says Clark Troy, research director with Aite Group and co-author of this report. “Insurers need to implement the right tooling to support producers, including sales-force automation to track and assign territories and run campaigns, and streamlined business processes to lower costs, speed cycle times, and make sure that precious prospects brought into the sales funnel don’t get away.”
This 23-page Impact Report contains 20 figures. Clients of Aite Group’s Life Insurance service can download the report.