ALI Group new chief executive officer Emily Sofkovska has declared her commitment to growing the business through broker partnerships after being appointed to lead the group.
The appointment follows the departure of Huy Truong and sees Sofkovska (pictured above) joining ALI and bringing with her broad market experience from working at PLAN Australia, CBA, Westpac, Allianz and more recently LFI Group.
Sofkovska said ALI, which provides life insurance to Australians purchasing homes and investment properties, would continue to work with brokers interested in diversifying into insurance.
“ALI Group has been on a 20-year journey, and we have protected 232,000 customers and provided over $67 billion in cover,” Sofkovska said. “We will continue to be committed to the broker market, with our mission of protecting Australian home and property buyers from hardship.”
Sofkovska said the group would also consider new features and enhancements to its flagship product My Protection Plan, and different products were also “on the cards” for the channel.
A differentiating conversation for brokers
ALI’s flagship product is a life insurance policy which provides a payment in the event of serious illness, specified injury or death, and is designed to protect borrowers from financial hardship.
Brokers who offer the product are authorised by ALI under its Australian Financial Services Licence, and undergo background checks, product training, general advice training and compliance reviews.
Sofkovska said with current increases in inflation, interest rates and cost of living pressures, it was more important than ever for brokers to have a conversation about insurance with customers.
“We know that the current economic conditions lead people to reconsider their expenses on many discretionary as well as important household expenses like insurance,” she said.
“But as the pandemic passes and our health system catches up, we’re also seeing an increase in diagnosis of many life-changing ailments. The reality is nobody knows when they will be impacted by adverse health, so it’s a conversation we need to continue to have with customers.”
ALI Group said brokers who were authorised had a genuine commitment to look after clients and talk to them about the product.
“When brokers include insurance in their conversations, they really differentiate themselves and their business by showing their customers they have a holistic view of their needs,” Sofkovska said.
Brokers are uniquely placed to not only offer the right lending solutions to customers, Sofkovska said, but to highlight a potential change in a customer’s risk tolerance when they are taking on significant debt.
“Our core focus is for brokers to have that protection conversation, and we believe it’s the right place to have it. If a customer ends up getting cover through a financial planner, or different cover, that’s OK – our coaching is really around risk awareness so customers have a choice and can make their own informed decision.”
Some brokers using the ALI Group product say they regard a conversation around insurance cover as an important part of their customer proposition, and have made it a part of their loan process.
A survey conducted by Susan Bell Research on behalf of ALI Group in 2022 found 94% of customers found it helpful that a broker discussed the risk of personal life events such as illness or death in the context of a large financial commitment, and 96% found it helpful a broker had a solution to offer.
Providing a voice for ‘protection conversations’
Sofkovska started her career at PLAN Australia, after leaving university with a major in organisational psychology. She said even after a short period in the industry, she felt like she had found her ‘professional home’.
Since then, Sofkovska has held senior roles across banking, property and insurance, including at Westpac, Bank of Melbourne, Allianz and CBA, and will bring that experience back to the broking channel, where she plans to be a strong voice for insurance into the future.
“The core in my career has always been about making a difference to the customer, whether that is helping them own their first home or investment property, building their wealth or supporting them with risk solutions,” she said.
“I’m excited about the great work we are doing at ALI. We believe in doing the right thing by customers and making a real difference. So, we’ll continue to be advocates talking about the importance of risk and protection awareness and helping inform customers. I think brokers are in a truly unique position to be able to have those conversations.”
Sofkovska also said ALI may broaden its insurance offerings in future to cover customers taking on asset finance and SME lending commitments.
“We’re interested in asking the question: what does our proposition look like for customers with asset loans, or for those customers who are taking out SME loans?”
“We would like to look at this market and be able to provide different products for each segment. We talk to brokers a lot about diversification, and we also want to be able to offer products in as many of those asset classes while honouring the core of what we do at ALI.”
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