MLC has leveraged off its existing Aviva insurance products and technology to develop a new insurance offering for financial advisers.
The new offering, to be rolled out in mid-October, was a combination of the Riskfirst and Protectionfirst application and MLC’s Personal Protection Portfolio, MLC executive general manager of insurance Duncan West said.
“This is a new offer altogether, obviously leveraging off both the technology and service model that comes out of Aviva and the long-running product philosophy of MLC,” West told InvestorDaily.
He said the product, known unofficially as MLC insurance, will enter a pilot stage with advisers in the next few weeks.
During the development, MLC had been in discussions with advisers to get their feedback, he said.
“It’s not something we’ve developed in isolation. We’ve been talking with them [advisers] about the product itself, the pricing, the product wording and also the technology and the service model,” he said.
He said some parts of the service model had already been rolled out, with further elements set for release in the coming weeks.
The new offering will include enhancements to Riskfirst as well as a new desktop-based quotation tool, Illustrator.
MLC expects the new offering will reduce turnaround times on new insurance business by up to 70 per cent.
“This [new product] is part of a cycle that we will get into regularly with regular development and upgrade to insurance,” West said.
In regards to whether the new product will be compliant with the government’s Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms, he said it was too early to comment.
“It could be; depends on exactly what FOFA comes up with,” he said.
“The big debate on FOFA-ready is insurance commissions inside of super and until we know exactly where that’s going to land, it won’t be ready for that [reform].”
