More financial advisers are selling life insurance products, with many using an investment platform for the transaction.

In a new survey of 800 advisers by Investment Trends, 78% of advisers surveyed said they are selling life insurance products compared to 71% last year.

Investment Trends advisory board member Tim Cobb told insuranceNEWS.com.au the majority of advisers will be using the superannuation options on a platform to achieve tax-effective benefits for their clients.

“The simple life policies of mums and dads would use the superannuation option while the more complex insurance would be put through the client’s self-managed superannuation fund,” he said.

“Life insurance on platforms was dumbed-down when it was introduced, but this is changing.”

Mr Cobb says life and trauma insurance are the main risk products sold through platforms, as income protection doesn’t have the tax-effective benefits of using superannuation as the transaction vehicle.

“For some advisers, using a platform for life insurance has enabled then to dip their toes in the water and offer products to their clients,” he said.

The survey also looked at which life insurers were offering the best products and services.

Advisers rated Asteron as the top insurer, ProPlanner the best risk software and ING OneAnswer as the best platform for life insurance.

The survey found ING and Asteron are the overall leaders in life insurance, based on the proportion of advisers selecting them as their main insurer, with strong support for all of the top eight insurers. 

Mr Cobb says it is good for the life insurance market to still have a number of insurers competing for market share.

“Competition is set to remain intense regardless of the current round of takeovers,” he said. “We found one of the key enhancements requested by advisers was for platforms to allow a choice of insurer. 

“This has been strongly resisted by all platforms until very recently.”

The survey found average life insurance premiums written by advisers in 2010 rose by 37% to $99,000, with risk advice now contributing 32% of average practice revenue.