adverse credit mortgage broker

Is insurance bought or sold?

A year ago, 1LifeDirect came to the market offering consumers the opportunity to cut out the broker and buy life cover directly. The industry was sceptical because other attempts at this model, such as Old Mutual's Greenline, had not been a success. The argument was that, because it is a grudge purchase, people do not buy life insurance -- one needs an army of brokers to go out and convince people to take out cover. It would appear that 1LifeDirect has proven this argument wrong. The company uses only above-the-line advertising, so customers themselves have decided that they need life insurance before picking up the phone or going online for a quote. In one year, 1LifeDirect's customers have bought life cover worth R15-billion through the telephone and internet. According to Lenerd Louw, CEO of 1Lifedirect, the business is growing rapidly, selling an average of 3 000 policies per month, or more than R2-billion worth of life cover -- a lot of business that is not going to brokers.