Paymentshield has launched a new platform to plug gaps in brokers knowledge of general insurance products, which it says costs advisers almost £50m a year in lost fees.
The home insurance specialist says its GI Academy holds e-books, whitepapers and events designed to boost financial advisers skills by allowing them to diversify their services.
It will also carry product test modules that contribute towards annual continuing professional development requirements under the Insurance Distribution Directive.
The free hub is aimed at mortgage advisers and general insurance specialists who are either currently selling general insurance or looking to diversify their offering to clients.
Last year, the insurer estimated the scale of the commission advisers were losing out on, was £47.8m from missed home insurance sales in 2019.
The firm released its annual Adviser Survey in the summer, which highlighted a ‘guilty gap’ among brokers. It found that 60% of brokers admitted to regularly overlooking chances to sell general insurance, despite recognition from 99% of advisers that it was best practice to do so.
The poll listed brokers their reasons for missing out on these sales, with 13.6% putting this down to a lack of product knowledge, 51.4% said they lacked time, and 17.9% said their firms had other priorities.
Paymentshield proposition director Louise Pengelly says: “Both a lack of product knowledge and a lack of time have been cited as key reasons why advisers are missing out on opportunities to sell general insurance.
“Whether that’s a feeling that the sales process is too lengthy, they don’t have the time to build up product knowledge or haven’t had the time to integrate it into existing systems – GI Academy has been designed and built to directly tackle all these issues.
“The academy will initially launch with two modules consisting of 6 chapters which will be approximately three hours of learning towards the annual 15-hour CPD requirement under the Insurance Distribution Directive.
“Additional modules and resources will then be added over the coming weeks and months.”
