Rupert Neethling
A new United States phenomenon called “account aggregation” may well become the web’s next big thing. According to a recent report, account aggregation enables users to monitor their insurance balances, credit cards, bank or brokerage statements and even e-mail accounts at the same time and in the same place. However, before such services can take off in South Africa, financial institutions such as insurers will need to become more web-active than they are at present.
Strides have been made in obtaining personal stock information over the Internet, and online banking is a fait accompli. But ordinary South African users still require better web-based access to their personal insurance data than they are receiving today.
South African insurance companies face a promising market in this country’s two million-strong Internet community-not just among existing premium payers, but among the growing number of connected, potential clients who have taken out little or no insurance or who simply are not insurance- saturated. But they still have a way to go.
This is not to say that local insurers have not already ventured on to the web; most of them, and certainly all the big names, have their own domains and websites. Just about every major corporation that offers insurance of some kind can be found online.
With some exceptions, the potential of insurance sites to offer interactive data is underexploited. The majority of insurance sites are artfully designed and tastefully worded, to be sure. But in some cases their definition of “interactive” seems to stretch not much further than the e-mail link which, when clicked, launches one’s e-mail program.
To be fair, high-risk areas such as life and disability cover make it difficult to offer more than online brochures, application forms and contact details. A site offering instant cover of this nature, without the need for medical records or physical examinations, should not be regarded as the best option simply because it offers greater interactivity. And companies offering these kinds of cover generally do offer clients access to their policy details on the web.
Meanwhile, more dynamic web resources are gradually being introduced by major providers of personal insurance. Here is a selection of some of the better (and a few not-so-great) sites:
The Santam (www.santam.co.za) site, for example, allows you to submit claim forms online, check on your claim progress and make changes to existing policies. Santam also offers detailed online car and household insurance quotes based on values selected by the user. Such quotations, along with the user’s contact details, can then be e-mailed to Santam. Similarly, surfers can submit applications for legal- access insurance and request preliminary quotations for health insurance.
As life assurers, Old Mutual (www.old mutual.co.za) have gone further than many with their Greenkey, which provides registered clients with secure access to the Old Mutual network. Greenkey holders can monitor their investments and buy, switch or sell their unit trusts online.
The Old Mutual site also features a Mutual & Federal Car and Household Insurance section where visitors can request and receive instant, albeit preliminary, quotations online. Clients can also submit their claims over the net or download claim forms for faxing.
Guardian National (www.guardian.co.za) used to offer an online quotation system via their Guardian Direct (www.guardian.direct.co.za) site, but this site’s homepage now simply supplies information on the merger between Guardian National and Santam.
Auto & General (www.autogen.co.za), a well-established provider of instant, telephone-based motor and household insurance, uses its website to invite visitors to place a request for Auto & General staffers to call them at a desired time. Apart from that the site has little functionality. (Still dynamic, though, if you employ a broad definition of “online”.)
Having absorbed General Accident Insurance Co. and Sentrasure, the CGU Insurance Group (www.cgu.co.za) offers numerous types of cover, including a rape- survivor policy. An online application form (which basically functions as a request to be contacted) is available on the site for this kind of cover, while an “E Form” can be filled in to request more information on any available policy. CGU also offers password-protected access to its broker site.
How are insurance brokers coping with DIY insurance obtained directly from insurance companies’ websites? For starters, insurance brokers have more leeway in recommending different insurance companies for specific types of cover. And while they may not offer expensively designed corporate websites, outfits such as Perfin Brokers (www.perfin.co.za) and Sansure Insurance Brokers (www.sansure.co.za) offer fast, competitive quotes online.
One of the most interesting new developments in South African web-based insurance comes from an upstart company called Netcover (www.netcover.com). This site offers free online quotations as well as competitively priced insurance and investment products-and it even promises that after registering with it once, you can purchase any of its products “at the click of a button”. Netcover also offers M- Web subscribers a hefty discount on car and household insurance.
Netcover illustrates that while most established insurance companies have done well to offer more than just corporate brochures on the web, they still have work to do. It seems that only after traditional insurers have become true web businesses will South African netizens be able to take full advantage of luxuries like account aggregation.
ENDS