AIA:”The Ratings Game”

You can feed in precisely what is required to draw out results that suit your purposes

A critical part of soft analysis is to keep up with and understand an insurer's philosophical process.

What do advisers have a responsibility to consider when making policy recommendations to clients? It's a question I've been pondering lately: what we've come to see over the past six months, as we have refreshed our core stable of products, is that advisers - generally speaking - are giving too much weight to the calls made by product ratings houses.

Why is this problematic? Well, simply put, because it can diminish the value of advice and it does not shift the responsibility for the product recommendations. What credible criteria should advisers use in evaluation of these trading partners they will entrust their clients' lives and lifestyles with?