It’s a Great Googolopoly Life

This article published in the Digital Insurer is for sharing with colleagues interested in future market developments. The Digital Insurer is the free global resource for digital insurance innovators, with sponsors including Swiss Re and Clicks2Customers.

As UK life & pensions insurers gear up to digital innovation in response to market upheavals, have they an eye to the horizon for the potential ultimate power shift? What if their internet route to customers becomes a competitor for their customers?

The article looks at recent developments in the on-line marketplace, which could have relevance to the UK Life &Pensions marketplace too:

In the UK, we’ve had Google Compare’s low profile test run of being a car insurance aggregator, as a prelude to launch in the US. We see Google Finance honing its portfolio management tools, but not transacting yet. Google Wallet however has been involved in cash transactions for four years already.

So if it wanted to, there seems little reason why Google couldn’t set up in competition to, say, Hargreaves Lansdown for investing our newly accessible pension investments in Google ISAs and Google SIPPs. Or buy up maybe the Beagle Street stable, to have a go at the massive protection gap.

The Digital Insurer article looks at why insurers might have cause to be grateful for Europe’s intervention this time.

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