The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has created a chartered transparency forum to examine ways the profession can best meet the expectations of consumers.
The forum will bring together consumer representatives, legal experts and leading practitioners from across the insurance profession in order to:
Calculate the insurance expectation gap in policy coverage versus customer understanding, with indications of how it can be addressed.
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Publish and promote guidance, outlining the principles by which all professionals should take accountability for improving transparency, engagement and comprehension of communications relating to policy coverage.
Identify existing learning materials and prioritise the development of future learning materials to improve the profession’s broad expertise in how policy wordings work, and how their drafting can better match brand promises, marketing messaging and consumer expectations.
Lead a campaign to promote the above standards and learning with the objective of collectively improving public trust by reducing the expectation gap.
The group, chaired by Melissa Collett, professional standards director of the CII, consists of: Peter Blanc, group chief executive of Aston Lark; Graham Trudgill, executive director of British Insurance Brokers Association; James Daley, managing director of Fairer Finance; James Dalton, director of general insurance policy of the Association of British Insurers; Mandy Hunt, chief underwriting officer of RSA Commercial and Society of Underwriting Professionals member; Philip Williams, managing director of Simply Business MGA and Society of Underwriting Professionals member; Jennette Newman, partner of Clyde & Co and chair of the Professional Standards Committee of the CII; Dr Matthew Connell, policy and public affairs director of the CII; and Ian Simons, customer director of the CII.
Sian Fisher, CEO of the CII, said: “When people buy insurance, they are buying a promise of help when things go wrong.
“But too often, there is an expectation gap between what customers thought that promise was and what the provider intended.
“To improve trust, we must understand exactly what leads to that gap, and how we can reduce it together.
“This forum will establish ‘what good looks like’ and encourage good practice across the profession.
“I look forward to working with everyone who wants to build trust in insurance to put the insights of the forum to good use and establish principles for the profession to follow.”