The success has been driven in part by the widespread take-up – by advisers – of an option to white-label the product, which is called Life Protector and which permits clients to obtain up to $400,000 worth of life cover instantly online, without requiring medical exams.
“The way it has morphed into a white-label product has been something of a surprise to us,” admits Stephen Conway, the London-based head of global sales for Global Benefits Europe (GBE). The reason, he thinks, is because even the websites of small advisers look snazzier and are more efficient when they permit a client to access an insurance product directly, through the adviser’s site.
Another surprise, he added, is that IFAs are discovering as a result of the interest in Life Protector "how much interest there is among their clients for protection products”, which he says few of these advisers have traditionally sought to promote until now.
“We estimate that 65% of them did little or no life business before Life Protector.”
Thus far Global Benefits Europe says it has sold more than 800 policies since it began marketing the Life Protector Plan in February, now available through 49 advisory firms’ white labelled sites.
The largest number of sales have come from Europe, followed by Africa and the Middle East, Conway says.
“We are expecting to see growth in the Far East over coming months, as the product is rolled out through the region,” he adds.
Global Benefits Europe is a subsidiary of the privately-held, Foothill Ranch, California-based Global Benefits Group, which was founded in 1980 and which has as its motto “insurance without borders”.
Among its areas of concentration is group insurance for the foreign operations of multi-nationals, some 670,000 employees’ lives of which it insures around the world.
Looking after the insurance needs of staff of international schools is another major area, Conway says, noting that Global Benefits has some 175 schools in 73 countries on its books.
