Call to reveal industry statistics

They comprise new business per quarter per member company and in-force premium income. The data covers all risk products.

Consultant David Whyte, a former managing director of AIG, said the statistics should be available for scrutiny by advisers and consumers to help them make an informed judgement on the state of the company.

“In particular, the in-force metric should be published quarterly for every Life Company as a true measure of progress – or otherwise, as the case may be. In the absence of transparency, advisers and consumers will speculate, and such ill-informed guesswork can be damaging – so why not provide some accurate information upon which stakeholders can make better value judgements.”

He said it was particularly galling for AFAs who were required to regularly disclose their own financial positions. “I see no reason why the financial conditions of the product providers should not be similarly disclosed.”