questionnaire
Content
Questionnaire on Financial Education and Insurance
PART I:
1) Some countries faced recently events which demonstrated the need for improving financial education. These events included financial scandals that affected pension beneficiaries, insurance policyholders or other individual investors/savers who invested in financial instruments definitely more risky than they had thought, raising both a problem of financial education and financial information. Did investors recently suffer from insufficient financial education or information when investing in specific pension or insurance products?
1. A distinction must be made between the information available and financial education. In the past few years, there has been a vast increase in the amount of information available to the public from insurance and pension companies and from the Ministry of Finance, Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings (in the rest of the questionnaire Commissioner) department. This has been accomplished primarily with the increased importance and penetration of the internet into the marketplace and periodic bullitens which are sent to the media (mainly newspapers) which will be further explained below. With respect to raising the level of awareness and the interest of the public a number of actions have been taken by the government or event have transpired which have brought to the attention of the public the importance of financial planning. 2. In the past 3 years there have been 2 major developments in the insurance/pension market which have gotten extensive media coverage: a. The reform of the new pension funds (2003) and life insurance market(2004) -more transparency of the insurance components . b. Change in the capital market – in the main: i. The separation of the provident funds and mutual funds from the major banks (2005) which controlled the vast majority of these funds. The banking industry in Israel is dominated by 2 large banks. The banks were also forced to sell their holding of insurance companies to less than 10%. ii. A special government commission which enacted laws increases the responsibility of insurance agents and pension/insurance advisors. The required the advisors to present the proposed insured the "best" insurance coverage. 3. Problematic question – inspite of what is written above, without increase awareness of the public such that the public will demand the best insurance/pension coverage for there needs and review what they have acquired regulation alone will not help.
Could the delegates elaborate on these or any other events that raised the issue of financial education?
2) The insurance sector has always been characterized by an asymmetry of information between insurers and policyholders. Recently, deregulation and increased competition in the sector have resulted in both a greater number of and increasingly complex insurance products.
· What is being done in your country to help consumers understand insurance policies (terminology, contract provisions, etc.) and the functioning of insurance markets? How easy is it for consumers to be able to compare different insurance policies? Internet Site of the Commissioner has Buyers Guide for Life insurance and Long Term Care, and there is a proposed Buyer Guide for Pension Savings. Each of the guides have explanations of the need for the
PART I:
1) Some countries faced recently events which demonstrated the need for improving financial education. These events included financial scandals that affected pension beneficiaries, insurance policyholders or other individual investors/savers who invested in financial instruments definitely more risky than they had thought, raising both a problem of financial education and financial information. Did investors recently suffer from insufficient financial education or information when investing in specific pension or insurance products?
1. A distinction must be made between the information available and financial education. In the past few years, there has been a vast increase in the amount of information available to the public from insurance and pension companies and from the Ministry of Finance, Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings (in the rest of the questionnaire Commissioner) department. This has been accomplished primarily with the increased importance and penetration of the internet into the marketplace and periodic bullitens which are sent to the media (mainly newspapers) which will be further explained below. With respect to raising the level of awareness and the interest of the public a number of actions have been taken by the government or event have transpired which have brought to the attention of the public the importance of financial planning. 2. In the past 3 years there have been 2 major developments in the insurance/pension market which have gotten extensive media coverage: a. The reform of the new pension funds (2003) and life insurance market(2004) -more transparency of the insurance components . b. Change in the capital market – in the main: i. The separation of the provident funds and mutual funds from the major banks (2005) which controlled the vast majority of these funds. The banking industry in Israel is dominated by 2 large banks. The banks were also forced to sell their holding of insurance companies to less than 10%. ii. A special government commission which enacted laws increases the responsibility of insurance agents and pension/insurance advisors. The required the advisors to present the proposed insured the "best" insurance coverage. 3. Problematic question – inspite of what is written above, without increase awareness of the public such that the public will demand the best insurance/pension coverage for there needs and review what they have acquired regulation alone will not help.
Could the delegates elaborate on these or any other events that raised the issue of financial education?
2) The insurance sector has always been characterized by an asymmetry of information between insurers and policyholders. Recently, deregulation and increased competition in the sector have resulted in both a greater number of and increasingly complex insurance products.
· What is being done in your country to help consumers understand insurance policies (terminology, contract provisions, etc.) and the functioning of insurance markets? How easy is it for consumers to be able to compare different insurance policies? Internet Site of the Commissioner has Buyers Guide for Life insurance and Long Term Care, and there is a proposed Buyer Guide for Pension Savings. Each of the guides have explanations of the need for the
