Compare Club is scaling with an aim to grow to $100m of managed premium in the life insurance space with the acquisition of financial advisory service Lifelong Insurance Solutions.
What does Compare Club’s move mean for the industry?
The multi-million dollar acquisition means the personal finance marketplace company is well prepared to fill the void left by the exodus of life insurance advisors from the industry in the wake of increasing regulation around life insurance advice. Since 2021, Compare Club has added an additional 2,600 additional life insurance customers through acquisitions.
The company currently has over $40m of life insurance premium under management and its projected trajectory is to have $100m within three years through both organic growth and acquisitions. Last year, Compare Club acquired a portion of Zebra Financial Services’ life insurance book. The firm also acquired financial news publication YourLifeChoices in 2019.
Lance Goodman, Compare Club CEO, said, “Due to increased compliance costs from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, only people who can afford top rates for financial advice are getting life insurance advice, leaving a big gap for middle income households buying a highly complex product.”
“With increasing numbers of financial advisors getting out of the life insurance business due to increased regulatory costs, we’ve identified an opportunity for growth in the $33bn sector and our business model makes us uniquely placed to fill this gap,” Goodman said.
“We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to help our customers. With this latest acquisition, we’re best placed to use or scale and technology to step into the gap that regulation created. We’re able to service customers who can’t be serviced by traditional financial advisors because that model no longer suits them,” Goodman further commented.
What are the structural changes at Compare Club?
As part of the acquisition, Compare Club has onboarded three of Lifelong’s senior financial advisors, expanding their scale and capability to put the firm in a position to give affordable life insurance brokerage to a target market which can’t receive this service elsewhere.
“One of the perks of being under the Compare Club brand is that due to our scale, we can access premium services and prices from insurers. There’s also less need for paperwork due to our digital capabilities, something that many financial advisors can’t offer,” Goodman said.
“Additionally, being part of Compare Club Group comes with the ability to help Australians manage some of their other major expenses such as health insurance, their mortgages, car loan repayments and even energy costs. Every one of our vertical product lines has a unique offering or dominates the market in a certain way, and life insurance is no exception.”
“Our dedicated team means we’ve been able to succeed in the life insurance market where competitors, who white label other providers’ services. The free nature of our advice model means we’re uniquely positioned to benefit from the exodus of financial advisors, which will only get worse as we get closer to September – the deadline for their adviser exams.”
“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 space in the near future.”
For more information, please visit compareclub.com.au
