Consistently with Recommendation 3.4, which prohibits the hawking of superannuation products, hawking of insurance products should be prohibited.
Government Response
The Government agrees, consistent with the Government response to Recommendation 3.4 (about the hawking of superannuation products), that hawking of insurance products should be prohibited, noting, for example, that the Royal Commission did not propose restricting the ability of insurers to contact policy holders in relation to existing policies. The definition of hawking will be clarified to include selling of a financial product during a meeting, call or other contact initiated to discuss an unrelated financial product.
The Royal Commission heard evidence of vulnerable consumers being sold insurance products through unsolicited phone calls where pressure selling tactics were used, resulting in consumers purchasing a product that they did not want or need.