Survey Results Expose Insurance Industry Training Needs On the Rise Due to DOL Fiduciary Standard Rule
July 19, 2016 by Insurance Insight Group
Park City, UT (July 19, 2016) – Insurance Insight Group (IIG) conducted a survey of company executives and financial professionals that reveals significant changes are anticipated within the insurance industry as the DOL fiduciary rule applicability date of April 2017 nears. The survey exposed financial professionals’ opinions on anticipated changes to their practices, marketplace and products, and what they envision their sales focus will be going forward. In addition, industry companies reflected on how their business will change.
Among the companies surveyed (insurance carriers, insurance marketing organizations (IMOs) and vendors), 84 percent anticipate that training requirements will increase for their field force. At the same time, only slightly more than 50 percent of the companies feel they have adequate internal resources to meet the training demands of the future.
While many organizations work with independent financial professionals today, companies see this changing. Thirty-four percent of the companies responding to the survey believe it is somewhat likely a captive agent force will be a part of their future business strategy and another 16 percent say this is very likely or absolutely the future of their field force.
In thinking about the future, financial professionals were asked to rank the products where they plan to focus their sales on in the year ahead. Financial professionals ranked their top sales priority in the coming year as securities or assets under management, while the second and third priority areas focused on life insurance, including whole life, universal and indexed universal life, single premium life and term life insurance.
Those within the financial services and insurance industry have mixed feelings on the pending DOL fiduciary standard. When asked for their opinion, 57 percent of financial professionals said they believe the DOL rule is damaging to consumers, while 29 percent think it will be helpful and 14 percent believe it will have no impact on consumers.
Social media and other digital communications will have an important role as the survey revealed 45 percent of financial professionals use social media to follow industry/professional news, information and sales ideas. In addition, 55% of financial professionals use social media for communicating with clients, prospecting and sharing information.
Request more information about the Insurance Insight Group DOL rule industry impact survey results here.
About Insurance Insight Group
Insurance Insight Group provides marketing and training services to financial services companies, including insurance carriers, marketing organizations, banks, and broker-dealers. The executives at IIG have collective experience of more than 75 years in the insurance industry resulting in a successful track record of innovative solutions for growth. More information can be found at www.InsuranceInsightGroup.com.
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Media Contact: Mark Stone, mark.stone@iigsolutions.com, 801-290-3333.