Last week, an unknown number of life insurance employees lost their jobs. Integrity Life announced that its retail advised and corporate group insurance channels would stop writing new life insurance policies.
A spokesperson from Integrity Life told Insurance Business that the firm is not publicly sharing the number of jobs lost and referred IB to its media release. Some online sources, including recruitment websites, suggest Integrity Life has between 30 and 100 employees.
However, at the same time as the firm’s announcement, LinkedIn was proving to be a source of job loss information. A number of the firm’s employees have used the social media platform to announce their bad news and become whistleblowers in the process.
In tune with the positive tone of many LinkedIn posts, these now former life insurance employees showed no trace of rancour as they thanked colleagues and praised the work culture of their old firm.
One post referred to “many” positions impacted by the cuts. However, a reliable industry source told IB that these job losses are not indications of wholesale job losses in the insurance sector at large.
The Integrity Group Holdings media release said declining numbers of financial advisers was the main reason for its job cuts.
“Unfortunately, the Retail Advised channel has seen a substantial reduction in the number of financial advisers providing risk advice over the last five years,” said CEO Sean McCormack. “The number of lives insured across all channels has substantially reduced and the market decline means that scale is critical.”
McCormack said continuing to write new retail advised policies is no longer in policyholders’ or shareholders’ interests.
The Integrity release said adviser numbers have declined from more than 26,000 in 2019 to about 16,500 last year.
The release blamed this decline on the increased education requirements and higher standards of conduct required under the Life Insurance Framework (LIF).
The LIF, introduced in 2019, was widely supported by life insurance stakeholders as a way of professionalising the industry, setting minimum standards and increasing public confidence in the sector.
However, the Integrity release suggested that another result is a drastic reduction in the number of advisers selling life insurance.
Ironically, the release also charted impressive premiums growth over the last couple of years across Integrity Group. In 2021, Integrity reported about $22 million in life insurance premiums. In June this year that number had reached more than $140 million in premiums.
However, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) statistics quoted in the release showed a different story for the retail advised division. In 2018, the division insured five million people. In 2022, that figure had dropped to just above four million.
IB approached two firms that regard themselves as Australia’s leading life insurers: TAL and AIA for comment.
IB asked these firms if they were facing similar challenges to Integrity Life in their retail advised channels? Both TAL and AIA declined to answer questions.
IB also approached, the Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI). A CALI spokesperson referred IB to Integrity’s media release.
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