Swiss people rarely change insurance

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the essentials in brief

• The consulting firm Deloitte has published a new study.
• 71 percent of those surveyed stated that they only “rarely” change insurance.
• Personal advice is likely to become less important for younger people.

A good fifth of the insured (21 percent) extend an expiring contract without an in-depth examination, as a study published on Tuesday by the consulting firm Deloitte shows. Another 71 percent of those surveyed stated that they only “rarely” change insurance.

In contrast, only eight percent said that they often changed their insurer when they could do better business. When making a purchase decision, however, the price and the product features remained the most important criteria, followed by advice and customer service.

Nevertheless, according to the survey, personal advice remains the most important source of information for purchasing insurance (41 percent). However, this is likely to lose its importance, especially for younger people. A good quarter of those surveyed (27%) already stated that the majority of them obtained their own information, mostly online.

Willingness decreases with age

While sales transactions via digital channels are still not widespread, policyholders want to process claims reports, changes in coverage or similar interactions online. According to the survey, “simplicity, comprehensibility and convenience” are the most important properties in digital channels.

A good half (57 percent) of those insured in Switzerland can also imagine taking out insurance from a non-traditional provider such as a technology company or taking out insurance that is directly linked to a product purchase (cars, tickets). However, the willingness to do this decreases sharply with increasing age, the study found.

According to the information in December 2020, a total of 1000 people from German- and French-speaking Switzerland were interviewed in the Deloitte survey. The survey was all about insurance for individuals.