The future is in your hands

Posted on 4 Mar, 25 by BrightRock

The world is rapidly changing and with these changes, such as the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), many professions may seem to be under threat. However, the thing that research shows is that people still value human interaction. While technology can help simplify many things, consumers still want to speak to qualified professionals when it comes to big life decisions, like getting life insurance.

Your advice is the product

Today, more than ever before, clients need the support and guidance of a trusted adviser. They want your help in getting products that can actually meet their needs and change with them as those needs change. While there is often a perception in the industry that clients are opting to disintermediate, consumer research shows that the opposite is true.

Given the current economic challenges, the importance clients place on trust and the demand for high quality products and services, and the demand for convenient, technology enabled service, clients need a trusted adviser to help them navigate this complexity. Your role as a financial adviser is more crucial than ever before.

Features that set great advice apart

Here are just some of the features that set great advisers apart from the rest.

Customised, accessible and flexible – both the advice and the product solutions offered must be tailored to each individual client’s specific needs – and this extends not just to the performance of the product, but also to the services that go hand-in-hand with the product.

Fit-for-purpose – the advice and product solutions should deliver the most comprehensive cover possible, to limit clients’ financial risk and exposure. And where affordability constraints leave gaps, the adviser is critical to helping clients understand these.

High-quality solutions at an affordable price – the choice of product is key. Financial advisers have the ability, through a rigorous advice process and in-depth industry knowledge and experience, to understand their clients’ needs and, just as importantly, to help their clients understand how the products offered by the adviser can meet the clients’ needs – and which, if any, of those needs cannot be met by the proposed solution. The choice of dynamic, innovative product technology that can support and enable financial advice.

Products should enable your advice

In today’s digital age, clients expect companies to harness technology to make it easier to sign‑up for and access cover, to make changes to their cover, and to claim. Great advisers need to have access to good quality financial products and services to be able to deliver to their clients.

Clients want an adviser that is caring, knowledgeable, diligent and committed to building a long-term, personal relationship with them. Great advice boils down to human relationships – albeit facilitated, at certain points of the interaction, through convenient technology. But in the end, the successful adviser is the one who focuses on their clients’ needs first and foremost.

This is why it’s imperative that you have access to products that can precisely match clients’ needs at the start and can change with them as their needs change in the future.

This article is attributed to BrightRock Executive Director, Sean Hanlon, and was first published in the February 2025 edition of COVER Magazine.