Personal finance marketplace Compare Club has acquired financial advisory service LifeLong Insurance Solutions for less than $10 million, it is reported.
Since 2021, Compare Club has added 2,600 additional customers through acquisitions – and snapping up Lifelong brings it a step closer to growing its life insurance premium under management from $40 million to $100 million in three years.
Its most recent acquisitions include a portion of Zebra Financial Services’ life insurance book in 2021 and financial news publication YourLifeChoices in 2019.
Lance Goodman, chief executive officer of Compare Club, said increased regulatory costs had pushed financial advisors out of the industry, prompting the need for a quickly fill to this gap.
“As a result of increased compliance costs stemming from the Royal Commission, only people who can afford top rates for financial advice are getting life insurance advice, leaving a big gap in the market for middle income households who are buying a highly complex product,” Goodman said. “We’re able to service customers who can’t be serviced by traditional financial advisors because that model no longer suits them.”
To ensure a smooth transition, Compare Club has onboarded three of Lifelong’s senior financial advisors as part of the acquisition. In addition, the Lifelong acquisition came just in time for the anticipated exodus of financial advisers as the deadline of adviser exams draw near.
“Our dedicated advice team means we’ve been able to succeed in the life insurance market where competitors, who white label other providers’ services, have failed,” Goodman said. “This growth in life insurance has resulted in earnings growth for Compare Club as a whole. There is a lot of scope for a comparator-broker to grow in life insurance over the coming decade and we expect there to be more acquisitions in this.”
