Financial Services Council - Submission to ASIC Consultation on Unsolicited Telephone Sales of Life Insurance - General Feedback

Oct 3, 2026

Submission by the Financial Services Council (FSC) to the ASIC consultation on unsolicited telephone sales of direct life insurance, including funeral insurance, and consumer credit insurance. The submission supports the policy goal of preventing pressured purchases and argues for a consent-based approach. It outlines principles for customer control, target-market information, and reasonable consideration time, and details what qualifies as positive, clear, informed consent and appropriate timing for initial contact.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Part 1 – General Feedback

1. Introduction

2. Principles

3. Consent

4. Lifespan

5. Existing Customers

6. Other considerations

About the Financial Services Council The FSC is a leading peak body which sets mandatory Standards and develops policy for more than 100 member companies in Australia’s largest industry sector, financial services. Our Full Members represent Australia’s retail and wholesale funds management businesses, superannuation funds, life insurers, financial advisory networks and licensed trustee companies. Our Supporting Members represent the professional services firms such as ICT, consulting, accounting, legal, recruitment, actuarial and research houses. The financial services industry is responsible for investing almost $3 trillion on behalf of more than 14.8 million Australians. The pool of funds under management is larger than Australia’s GDP and the capitalisation of the Australian Securities Exchange and is the fourth largest pool of managed funds in the world. Part 1 – General Feedback 1. Introduction The Financial Service Council (FSC) welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the ASIC consultation on unsolicited telephone sales of direct life insurance (including funeral insurance) and consumer credit insurance. The FSC is fully supportive of the policy intent of the proposals to protect unsuspecting Australians from being pressured into taking out insurance they do not want or need. The FSC fully recognises that pressure selling insurance products, over the phone or otherwise, is never acceptable. The FSC understands that none of its life insurance company members now engagesin such activity and fully supports a ban. However, the FSC also understands that hawking of funeral expenses insurance is continuing. Our submission is in two parts – the general feedback in this part, and the answers to the formal consultation questions in Part 2. 2. Principles The FSC believes that any changes to the regime should be designed to ensure that customers are always in control. In particular, that the customer: • Is in the target market for the product. • Is informed about the product’s key features, benefits, limits and exclusions. • Has a reasonable opportunity to consider whether or not to buy the product. • Can choose how and when to buy financial products in a way that suits their circumstances and preferences. 3. Consent Whilst Regulatory Guide 38 currently refers to a customer’s positive clear and informed request when characterising telephone sales as “solicited”, the FSC is of the view that what is needed intoday’s life insurance market is “positive, clear and informed consent”. The product provider should be able to initiate a call or discussion about a product, provided the person has given their positive, clear and informed consent for the product provider to do so. The FSC believes that the characteristics of positive, clear and informed consent are as follows: • Positive – the person must take some positive action, such as: o Ticking a box (as opposed to not unticking a box) o Asking for a call o Clicking an email link to find out more about a product o Providing contact details, for example on an insurance website • Clear – the person must realise that they are giving their consent and that they are likely tobe contacted by taking the positive action (for example, the request must not be hidden within a competition or be a condition of entry or be buried in small print) . • Informed – the person should know what the contact is likely to be about (for example, about insurance or life insurance, not just a general consent to receive one or more unspecified offers) and who will contact them. The consent could have been obtained by the life insurer or a related organisation. A related organisation is one with which the life insurance company has an ongoing business relationship, and which has gained the person’s positive, clear and informed consent to be contacted about life insurance. Where a person gives consent in line with the above, the FSC takes the view th

FAQs

What is the FSC’s purpose in this submission to ASIC?

The FSC provides a submission to the ASIC consultation on unsolicited telephone sales of direct life insurance (including funeral insurance) and consumer credit insurance.

How does the FSC define “positive, clear and informed consent” for telephone sales?

The FSC requires a positive action by the person, clear awareness that consent will likely lead to contact, and informed understanding of what the contact is about and who will contact them.

When should an outbound call be initiated after consent is given?

The FSC believes the initial contact should be made within 3 months, unless the person is or becomes an existing customer or a customer of a related organisation.

Oct 3, 2026

Upload by วิน