Delivering automated valuations could lead to life and pension providers cutting the volume of inbound phone calls by an average of 40 per cent by the end of 2005, according to research.
The research, carried out by the Financial Technology Research Centre on behalf of Advisor Forum, shows that delivering information on the value of existing contracts electronically to advisers' client management systems would reduce the call volume.
The research examines the percentage of calls to leading insurers' call centres for information on the value of policies.
The percentage of calls requesting valuation details received by different insurers varied between 25 per cent and 59 per cent. Information for more than 90 per cent of valuation enquiries could be delivered by electronic messaging by the end of 2005, with many insurers having this capacity by the end of this year.
In the past 18 months, insurers working with Origo have developed technology to send messages in real time to advisors' systems with an increasing number of software providers now delivering this capability to their clients.
Advisor Forum chairman Ian McKenna says: “These developments are good news for both advisers and providers. Messaging can considerably reduce the time advisers have to spend obtaining information over the phone. For insurers, it means they can apply resources to more technical issues.”
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