How the Corona crisis has changed the job

Munich Advice on financial products has changed massively since the beginning of the corona crisis. “More things have happened here in just a few months than in ten years,” says Helge Lach. The chairman of the BDV Bund Deutscher Vermögensberater is also a board member of DVAG Deutsche Vermögensberatung and has since observed a rapid increase in digital consulting. But customer wishes and growing regulation have also changed rapidly.

Thanks to digital advice, the image of the pushy advisor that the customer cannot get out of the front door until they have signed something can no longer be maintained. However, the reputation of the industry is still not good. “Unfortunately, the image of the financial sector as a whole is not the best because of a few,” Lach openly admits. Even individual companies could not escape this, even if they work with high quality.

All in all, this also means that interest in the profession of financial advisor has been declining for years. Since 2011, the number of insurance brokers in Germany has shrunk by more than a quarter. A trend that is likely to continue in the years to come is that a large number of consultants will soon be retiring due to the high average age of 53.

Young consultants for young customers

Many providers are trying to counteract this. At the Swiss life insurance group Swiss Life, around 5,800 consultants with a valid license have an average age of 35 years.

Top jobs of the day

Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.

Around 30 million euros flowed into the in-house campus in Hanover. In recent years, the group has invested seven million euros in training and further education.

>> Read here: Financial sector fears commission ban – “Commission pulls the plug on entire sector”

The thinking behind this strategy: Younger consultants should be better able to gain the trust of the important target group of 16 to 35-year-old customers. “As a result, they also speak the customer’s language,” says Stefan Butzlaff, Sales Director at Swiss Life. The industry association BDV has a similar focus. The average age there is 43 years.

Swiss Life

The insurance group trains younger insurance agents.

(Photo: dpa)

From the point of view of the industry, the fact that the number of insurance brokers has been shrinking for years is due to the increasing frustration among the consultants. For example, regulation has increased massively since the 1990s.

BDV Chairman Lach criticizes that many things do more harm to the customer than that it would be of any use to them. In his opinion, examples are inconsistent and overloaded product information sheets and excessive documentation requirements. Since August, the issue of sustainability has also had to be taken into account.

A wider offer for customers

“There is hardly any time left for the actual consultation,” says Lach. When concluding a Riester pension, the customer would have to be given around 50 sheets of paper, and up to five signatures would also be required. 70 to 80 percent of a consultant’s time is spent filling out and explaining forms.

>> Read here: Building insurance will be up to 30 percent more expensive in 2023

Many in the industry see a way out of the multitude of problems in platforms on which the consultant has access to a large number of products from a wide variety of providers. While it used to be the case that a consultant was only allowed to bring to customers what was on offer in their own company, many of them now also sell the products of other providers.

“An advisor sells more of his own products if he offers a large number of products from different insurers,” observes Sebastian Grabmaier, CEO of the financial services provider JDC. The Wiesbaden-based company offers consulting and management technologies via its platform. Only recently did the largest public insurers commit to this platform with the support of the savings bank associations.

The technology originated a few years ago in the fund sector. Customers there often want other products than those offered by their house bank. The solution was to open up to a platform with a wider choice.

>> Read here: In these cases, a building savings contract is worthwhile

In the future, there should also be more insurance companies. “In the future, it will be possible for the savings bank advisor to have all of their customers’ account, custody account and insurance data available,” says JDC board member Stefan Bachmann.

Branch deaths should decrease

This could possibly even lead to fewer branches closing at banks and savings banks in the future. Previously, the revenue per customer was too low in many branches. “That’s why it makes sense to expand the product range,” summarizes JDC CEO Grabmaier. In 15 years it will no longer be possible without portals, he is already looking to the future.

savings bank

More and more branches of savings banks and banks are closing.

(Photo: dpa)

However, a key problem has not yet been solved. A wide selection of products does not mean that the best is selected for the customer. That’s why financial service providers have recently teamed up more and more with analysis firms for insurance companies.

JDC took over Morgen & Morgen, Swiss Life announced the merger with the analysis company Franke & Bornberg Research shortly before Christmas. “There are already around 40,000 calculations for occupational disability per month via the Morgen-&-Morgen platform,” reports JDC board member Bachmann from practice.

Nevertheless, the internal procedures and processes in customer service at many banks and insurance companies are still not running smoothly. “Not all products and services have the same standard, such as at Amazon,” says BDV Managing Director Lach, looking self-critically at the technical state of the industry.

However, nobody believes that at some point in the distant future there will be a world without advisors in financial matters. Even in a high-tech country like China, they are still very important. Ping An, the country’s largest insurer, has around a million advisors there, Swiss Life board member Butzlaff draws parallels. “It shows the importance of physical counseling even in such a high-tech country.”

More: Every fourth German considers stock investments to be too risky for old-age provision

source site-11