Advisers taking lead on complaints processes

A lack of compliant internal complaints processes for insurance companies was highlighted by the recent Financial Markets Authority and Reserve Bank report into life insurers.

The regulators said most insurers' processes and systems for customer complaints, incident management and analysis of issues suffered from under-investment, and were poorly embedded and inconsistently used.

Not all complaints were captured and reported on. Most insurers had not given their staff clear definitions of what was a complaint and what was an “incident”.

“Insurers need appropriate systems and processes to record and resolve customer complaints and incidents. This includes defining what complaints and incidents are, and training staff on how to deal with these situations,” their report said.