Can you trust your insurance agent? This Singaporean set up a website to rate financial advisers

SINGAPORE: Buying insurance is part and parcel of adulting but the process of meeting with financial advisers and sieving through policies that come in various forms can be overwhelming.

Like many young adults, Mr Yap Jia Wei is just getting started on building up his insurance portfolio. But the 26-year-old finds it difficult to decide based on recommendations of advisers he has met only a few times.

Some of these meetings left him with more questions than answers.

“(One agent I met) was very nice but when I asked for specific numbers, she told me ‘Don’t need to think about that’ and started telling me stories,” said Mr Yap.

“I had to go back to look up the numbers myself,” he added. “(That meeting) felt like it was not very transparent. It didn’t give me a very good feeling.”

Realising that he was not the only frustrated consumer after speaking with his friends, Mr Yap started wondering about a review and rating platform for insurance agents and financial advisers.

“I asked myself if insurance is such an important thing, why have I been dragging my feet? My friends also have been doing the same.

“Basically, it’s knowing who can I trust? Even when you apply for jobs, you can Google to see what others have said about the company,” he said, referring to Glassdoor where employees can anonymously rate their employers.

Mr Yap got down to work and in two weeks, a community review site – Agenttrust.sg – where people can leave anonymous reviews on their insurance agents and financial advisers was born. Since the launch in end-September, the site has gathered nearly 100 reviews, based on a check by CNA.

To ensure that reviews are submitted by legitimate customers, the site asks for a proof of purchase, said Mr Yap who goes through each submission before publishing. There have been instances where he had to clarify if details on the proof of purchase are unclear or decide not to publish reviews with missing information.

“While building this, I spoke to friends who were agents. They thought this was an interesting idea, but they also mentioned concerns like this could be turned into a tool for people to eliminate competition,” he told CNA.

“With that in mind, I thought about what could make it trustworthy. Initially, I made the proof of purchase mandatory, but I got feedback like ‘What if the agent is already a red flag before the purchase’ and I thought that’s valid too,” he said, adding that reviews submitted without the proof of purchase will be indicated as such.

Another move to ensure “fairness” is to have an editor’s note tagged to negative reviews.

“I understand there may be concerns, especially because the database is not too big now… so (the editor’s note) is really a design feature (to act as a) gentle reminder that this is the perspective of one user for now,” Mr Yap said.

CONCERNS BY INDUSTRY PLAYERS AND ASSOCIATIONS

Currently, there do not seem to be any rating platforms for insurance agents or financial advisers.

Industry players and associations that CNA approached said they are aware of Agenttrust.sg and expressed concerns about the validity of the reviews.

Mr Alfred Chia, chief executive of financial advisory firm SingCapital, noted that the new platform has “noble” intentions but the anonymity of users creates room for potential abuse.

“People can create fake identities to post negative comments,” he said.

The Association of Financial Advisers Singapore (AFAS) and the Insurance and Financial Practitioners Association of Singapore (IFPAS) sounded similar concerns about the reviews being anonymous and a lack of “proper” verification mechanisms.

“We can never predict the intent and rightful expressions of the reviews and any wrongful usage would be detrimental to a person’s reputation for as long as the information is online,” IFPAS said, while advising consumers to “exercise due diligence” when assessing content posted on new platforms.

That said, the associations noted that feedback is necessary to improve the standards of the financial advisory service sector. Initiatives are already in place, such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s balanced scorecard framework and professionalism guidelines issued by the Insurance Culture and Conduct Steering Committee.

The former, which was first introduced in 2016, already constitutes a rating system for financial advisers and their supervisors, said AFAS.

“Should the authority choose to publish these scores (or) results to the public in the future, we will comply accordingly,” it added in an emailed response.

Meanwhile, individual companies have formal and established processes in place to address consumer concerns, said the Life Insurance Association Singapore. Frameworks have also been set up for the public to seek redress or file complaints, such as the Financial Industry Disputes Centre.

Financial advisory firm Providend said it would not be monitoring the new review platform for now, given how it remains in its nascent stage with not many reviews.

“If there are any complaints or feedback with regard to our client advisers, it should come directly to the firm,” said founder-CEO Christopher Tan, adding that the firm will launch investigations upon receiving complaints or negative feedback.

“AS LONG AS IT IS USEFUL”

Consumers who spoke to CNA acknowledged the risk of potentially unverified reviews, but they are largely welcoming of such a site.

“It’s very common nowadays to go online and find reviews for something that you want to try. Especially for something that’s important as insurance, you would want to do your research,” said Mr Adi, 28.

Ms Tan Sze Hui, 36, noted that real estate agencies also have similar rating portals for customers to leave reviews for their agents, which provided “some assurance” during her home-buying journey.

Mr Yap, who worked in business operations at an education technology firm, expressed hopes for his project to solve the perennial pain point of “trust” when it comes to getting insurance. He intends to continue maintaining his platform “as long as it is useful to someone”.

“This didn’t start off with a grand plan. It was purely a personal side project because I thought it would be interesting and helpful for people out there.”

Apart from reviews, he hopes to also educate consumers.

His site currently includes articles on the types of insurance plans needed at different life stages and tips on finding a suitable agent. These were all written by former insurance agents and financial advisers “who have nothing to sell”, Mr Yap stressed.

“I feel that a large part of insurance boils down to whether you trust the agent you are speaking to but there’s just no way of finding out,” he said.

“So, I hope to be able to solve that, together with the guidelines to help people know whether they’ve been told to buy more than what is needed.”