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November 20, 2002 at 07:00 PM
NU Online News Service, Nov. 20, 9:03 a.m. — New York
Life insurers can improve their results by working harder to sell value, according to Robert MacDonald, chairman of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, Minneapolis, a unit of Allianz A.G., Munich.
MacDonald warned here at a global leadership conference organized by the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, that, over the past 15 years, life insurers have gotten away from selling value. “We need to get back to selling value and get away from price and tax leverage,” he said. “When you give value, then you can make profit.”
To deliver value, MacDonald recommended that life insurers focus on simplicity, “real-time” service and long-term thinking.
Today, he argued, many insurance products are too complicated because insurers equate value with bells and whistles. “Many long term care products look like Christmas trees,” he observed. “You have no idea what it is.”
MacDonald suggested that the life insurance industry could do better by offering products that respond more effectively to consumer concerns, such as concerns about the additional expenses associated with getting sick in old age.
