“Do it right, do it now” or “easy to do business with”?

The other day, one of our best supporting advisers drew a contrast to going on risk with us and one of the established insurers in the group risk market.  We quickly got into a good debate about ‘easy to deal with’ positioning in group risk.  Given that he is an alumnus of a group risk insurer who used that strap line for many years there was a good edge to the debate!

Ellipse have taken a positive and definite decision for our process to be at the other end of the spectrum to the ‘easy to deal with’ insurers.  Now that does appear totally contrarian so I’d better explain myself.

All of the things that we set out in an orderly and logical fashion as needing to go on risk have to be done by every client and their adviser at some point.  Typically, those tasks are often done long after the insurer has assumed risk.  That can feel easy at the time of going on risk but it does mean that all the parties involved have to pick up the file again. 

The further a task is from its natural place in a process, the probability that it is not done increases.  Indeed if it is not done in its natural place the risk that flows from it and the real costs of operation increase too.  Chaser processes are generated and back-logs build up.  We all know how those back-logs can destabilise the insurer, both its cost base and service reputation.  Our approach is to get the job done at the right time and then to reap a productivity dividend for the intermediary, the insurer and of course the client.  The thing just works better from the start. 

If there are gaps in the disclosure as we go on risk then the adviser creates liability for themselves.  Smarter advisory firms are highly sensitive to creating operational risk within their business. 

Overall, switching insurers is not inherently risky unless it is rushed and some sloppiness creeps in as a result. 

I have done the “easy to deal with” positioning in my Swiss Life (UK) days when there was infinite flexibility and an “everything is possible” approach.  There is no doubt that it is a superficially attractive positioning but what became clear was that it brought huge inefficiencies and many unhappy clients in its wake.  It is easy to build up a mass of unfinished tasks, incomplete data and ultimately levels of operational risk which undermine the life office and negatively impact the intermediary’s operations too.  Undoubtedly there were increased costs for adviser firms.  Personally, and professionally, I have resolved not to repeat those patterns in this business.  So we will be striving from a clear philosophical starting point and equipping advisers with systems and processes to enable “ Do it right, do it now” and to get on and make some proper returns.