What are the pros and cons of buying insurance from banks as opposed to regular insurance companies?

Question

Saw that DBS aims to have in the next few years a million retail customers insured and invested as it looks to tap a more consolidated trove of customer data to ramp up its digital financial advisory tool. Wondering how the insurance DBS provides is different from a regular insurance company?

Jiayee · Accepted Answer

It can be more convenient to purchase insurance from banks because of the number of branches they have. On the other hand, technology is disrupting this by making the whole process digital (e.g. MoneyOwl, PolicyPal).

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Cheong Pei Lun · Answer

**Pros:** Banks manage your saving and credit cards, therefore buying insurance from banks may make things more convenient with an all in one service such as give you additional interest on your saving account or giving credit card rebates when you purchase insurance thru banks. Banks also can provide in-house rate and more flexible financing scheme giving consumer the edge in purchasing high premium insurance plan from there.

**Cons:** Bankers have monthly targets to meet and are known to lose their jobs when they constantly underperform which result in high turnover rate. You might find your policies being serviced by some unknown banker tagged on by either the bank or insurer. Hence, it will create inconvenient for when you want to review your policy or when there is a claim.

Tan Siak Lim · Answer

There is no difference. DBS doesn't manufacture insurance product. They are a distributor, currently for Manulife policies. So the product is the same, but the advisory process can be quite different. That, i shall not comment.

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