Survey on semantics upsets Tower
A survey by the Life Brokers Association (LBA) on the wording in Tower's application forms has upset the life insurer.
Thursday, November 18th 2004, 6:30AM
At issue are a couple of lines in Tower’s Health Plus and Life Style application forms, which the LBA claims gives Tower the right to “market” and sell any of its products directly to clients.
It has surveyed its members and asked them if they see this an erosion of the relationship with the client.
It goes on to ask if Tower does not remove the clause whether the broker will be happy to deal with and give Tower business in the future.
Tower’s sales and marketing distribution general manager Jeff Page says he is staggered the LBA has seen fit to survey its membership without picking up the phone to ask anyone at Tower about it first.
“I have checked with everyone here and no-one has heard a thing,” he says.
He says the LBA have got it all wrong as there is nothing in the form which gives Tower the right to “market” directly to clients.
“Tower can’t and won’t market directly to clients,” he says.
The clause in question is about being able to send information and news to policyholders, he says.
LBA president Dave Craven says he didn’t discuss it with Tower first because the association wanted to make sure it had the mandate to act before it approached Tower.
Craven says he will now approach Tower with the results of the survey. “Suffice it to say the brokers want to see the clauses gone,” he says. Page says he can not understand how brokers have not made an issue of it themselves.
“Every one of our policies for the past six years has been developed with strong broker input,” Page says. “And we have just finished a nationwide roadshow launching new products that more than 1000 brokers attended.
“We asked them if they had any outstanding issues and this was certainly not brought up anywhere.”
Page says once the LBA tells him what its concerns are he will investigate. “If it is detrimental to business going forward for our agencies then naturally we will fix it,” he says.
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