Aussie gets a life

Aussie Home Loans joins an increasingly crowded field in the direct life insurance distribution market with the launch yesterday of a phone-based brokerage in partnership with the South African insurer Hollard Group.

Aussie is hoping to tap into the recent strong growth in life insurance sales to give its sales force a fillip in a slow mortgage market.

It is offering life, accident and funeral cover and later this year will expand the product range to include general insurance products.

Industry figures show that life insurance sales have been picking up.

The research company DEXX&R reports that sales of new annual premium for lump sum insurance business (death cover, trauma and permanent disability) increased by14.2 per cent in 2008.

That growth rate is above the industry's long-term average. DEXX&R predicts that the current high growth rate will be maintained in the medium term.

The growth is attributed to people taking stock in the wake of the global financial crisis and the economic downturn.

Direct distribution of life products, via call centres and internet, is one of the fast growing segments of the market.

The leading players are Hollard's Real Insurance, which started up in Australia in 1999; the enigmatic Singaporean group Once; Allianz; and Insurance Line, a group that was started in South Africa but was bought by Tower Life last year.

The field is getting crowded. In April the research group InfoChoice launched a life insurance information database with referrals to the direct broker xLife.

Direct life sales are usually for small amounts of cover for young people. Big sales or ones that involve older people who might require medical examinations are usually referred to life insurance agents who can advise their clients.

Aussie's partner Hollard has partnerships with Australian Seniors Insurance Agency, Medibank, Petsure, Transcorp, Sportscover, AFA Insurance, and MotorOne.