The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is preparing a “multimedia multi-year” campaign to educate consumers about key terms and elements of insurance products.
The trade body revealed the plans at a House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee hearing on regulation of the consumer insurance market.
Members of the committee highlighted data arguing that it showed significant proportions of consumers believed they knew what their insurance covered but actually did not understand it.
ABI director of general insurance and international Chris Bose acknowledged the need for greater education of consumers and that it was going to be acting on this.
“The main thing we’re going to be doing is delivering a campaign which is designed to try to get customers to understand the core insurance products,” Bose (pictured) said.
“What they are for, what they cover, what they typically don’t cover, what the key terminologies are like excess for example.
“What we’re trying to do with that is equip customers with some simple heuristics and rules of thumb to help them to make good purchasing decisions when they do that. That’s just one part of the jigsaw.”
When pressed further on ensuring customers could make good buying decisions, Bose continued: “The way we’re trying to reach the mass market is through that campaign.
“What we’re looking to do here is to deliver a multimedia multi-year campaign that is designed to reach the public with some very simple messaging of insurance, what it covers and how to understand your product and how to make good purchasing decisions.”
Price comparison site information
He also revealed the ABI was working with the Financial Conduct Authority, some consumer groups and price comparison websites.
“We’re trying to drive how some of those price comparison websites can provide consumers with more information around some of the relevant risks here,” he explained.
And Bose noted some insurers had begun working with consumer groups to improve the simplicity and quality of their policy wording, with the potential for artificial intelligence to ”play a fairly big role”.