(Newswire.net — December 27, 2014) Rockland, Ontario —
While most Canadian Consumers know that they need to be adequately insured for life insurance, many of them find it intimidating and time consuming to set up a meeting with an insurance agent to buy life insurance. Websites like Life Shop are there to help make the insurance shopping experience quicker and easier. Once you are on the website, you can instantly shop and get quotes for term or whole life insurance plans from most Canadian insurance companies. From there you can simply pick the insurance company that you think is best for you and initiate the application process, without ever having to meet with an insurance agent face to face.
Ned Vedo, a life insurance broker from Ottawa, Ontario, is one of the pioneers that started the non-face to face trend of selling life insurance online. Ned started his first website, insuranceshoppers.ca in 2006, and over the years has kept improving the site, to make it more user friendly and make it easier for consumers to get instant online term insurance quotes. Mr. Vedo then started the website lifeshop.ca, which could very well be the best online life insurance quotation website in Canada. What makes lifeshop.ca different from many of the other quotation sites on the web is that Life Shop actually gives you instant live quotes. You would think that would be the case with all quotes sites, but it’s not. Many of the other sites out there only collect the consumer’s information, and then use that information as leads to give or sell to other insurance brokers, which would then try to book an appointment to visit with the consumer for a live interview. Ned doesn’t agree with that kind of strategy, he is committed to a fully functioning online system.
The other type of quotes available online are quotes from major insurance companies and banks. The problem with those is that a shopper cannot get a transparent comparison on those sites, as they would only provide figures for their own company. So for example, if you visit the TD bank insurance website, you will only get quotes from TD Insurance. You really have no way of knowing how that compares to other insurance companies, and that’s what makes it difficult.
What really made a difference in the Canadian non-face to face insurance market was when large companies like BMO Insurance, Equitable Life, Transamerica life and RBC Insurance and many more partnered with Ned Vedo, and started offering simplified online life applications, where a consumer could apply for an insurance policy without being face to face with the insurance agent. Ned still recommends that a life insurance consumer should consult with an experienced agent or broker over the phone, just to make sure that they are buying an adequate amount and type of policy for their needs. If a person is not sure how much insurance they do need, they can simply use the online life insurance needs calculator which is web based as well. This will instantly tell consumers how much insurance one needs based on their situation, and then they can simply plugin that figure into the best rate calculator, that will provide the quotes from all the Canadian life companies, including the companies AM Best ratings.
Although getting the best price is important, Ned’s service also provides detailed needs analysis, and ongoing advice. In other words, once you buy a policy, the service doesn’t end there. The financial advisors at lifeshop.ca continue shopping the market on an annual basis, and if there is any opportunities to save money or get a better plan in the future, they will make those recommendations. Ned’s philosophy is for consumers not to commit themselves into too long of a term, because the Canadian life insurance landscape is ever changing, and so are most people’s situations and needs. One may have a need for X amount of life insurance today, but in 10 or 20 years that need will change, guaranteed.
According to Ned “By buying shorter terms like 10 or 20 year term insurance, you will get the most affordable pricing, but also have all the guaranteed options, such as convertibility to a longer term, and renewability. Knowing which company to choose to be insured with is key, and that’s where our personal touch and advice comes in. Consumers should take advantage of the many years of experience that we provide, even though we may not be sitting down with you at your kitchen table, we can still provide high quality advice”
Most of the visitors to lifeshop.ca which goes by the corporate name Insurance Shoppers Canada Inc, also owned by Ned Vedo, appreciate the simplicity and transparency of the online quotation system. Ned believes that eventually all life insurance will be bought & sold this way, and the way of the insurance agent visiting and having coffee while explaining death benefits at your kitchen table is becoming more and more obsolete.