Year 2011 - Bancassurance – my perspective 銀行保險 我知我見

專題探討 Feature In May 2005 there was extensive flooding in the City of New Orleans, USA after the hurricane Katrina. Most of the residents suffered and were faced with the damage of their homes and their properties such as cars, houses, etc. Some of the residents were even found dead. Naturally their property or their houses were found valueless during that period of aftermath. The Government or some residents may even think of abandoning the entire City. There were two families in the same block in the City were facing the same adversity where their bread-earner-father did not survive the hurricane. Both families, fortunately, had a LIFE Assurance in place , ideally to protect the family. Family ‘A’ were happy that they had their own policy with their own Insurer and they obtained the proceed of the Policy and were free to spend the money for the best interest of their family. However, Family ‘B’ had a Policy which is a Mortgage Life Plan through their Bank. As such they were unable to get a dime (or a dollar) from their Insurance Policy because the Policy proceed would go directly to their Bank to pay off the mortgage. Family ‘B’ were still in the same serious financial trouble although their mortgage of their House had been fully paid off----bearing in mind their House could be not sold or realized at all under such situation. In Hong Kong I would wonder how many Mortgage Life Policies in the market are placed through the Banks------which can be very devastating (or double jeopardy ) for the policyholders in the event of major or medium-size disaster in the community. The Banks are of course happy to have these arrangements as the Policies are to protect their interest. This is exactly the situation where a great majority of the insuring public around the world (not just Hong Kong) may not be aware. Do you think our Insurance Authority or the Government are aware of this ??? This is only one of the disadvantages. The Insurance so arranged through independent intermediaries is to protect the family while that through the Bank is certainly to protect the Bank, themselves. There are also few other conflict(s) which the Banks are not willing to share or disclose to their customers at the time of purchasing such as choices of plans, stable grace period after expiry, independent expert advice and so on. My perspective about Banks doing Insurance anywhere in the world (including Hong Kong) 12 2010 年刊與 2011 展望 YEARBOOK 2010 & PROSPECT 2011