Canadian Consumers Struggle to Make Sense of Available Insurance Products

90% of Canadian Gen Z consumers willing to share personal data with insurers

Education, digitalization, and hyper-personalization identified as key industry priorities in insurance survey from Capco

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A new consumer survey has found that just under half of Canadian respondents (46%) feel uncertain or ill-informed about currently available insurance products. There is a clear opportunity for insurers to drive a further uplift both to levels of financial education and the transparency of policies. Knowledge leads to heightened confidence, more tailored protection, and a greater appetite among consumers to explore additional insurance options and coverage.

Capco, a global technology and digital consultancy, surveyed 1,000 Canadian consumers to gauge their impressions of insurance products and providers to capture public attitudes toward consumer insurance, the key products and services used, and emerging trends. The results form part of a larger survey of 14,000 consumers across 13 markets globally.

Three key themes emerge from the Canadian survey findings:

1. Lack of confidence about insurance presents the opportunity to better educate consumers and drive better engagement.

Only 54% of Canadian respondents feel well-informed about insurance products today while 24% are not sure and 22% class themselves as ‘not informed.’
This confidence level is the lowest of all 13 countries surveyed (63% average), some of which have less mature economies and insurance industries than Canada.
The survey findings indicate Canada has the largest gender gap in terms of perceived insurance knowledge, with Canadian women considering themselves the least well-informed demographic globally (43%).
The survey also finds Canadian men are below the global average in terms of perceived understanding of insurance (63% compared to the male global average of 67%).

2. Digitalization could offer customers greater transparency into ‘expensive and complex’ products.

61% of Gen Z (18-24) and 61% of Gen Y (25-34) policy-owning respondents want a better digital experience from their insurer.
Across all policy-holding age groups, 58% of respondents favour the concept of an app that offers better visibility across all their financial products.

That figure rises to 86% in the case of Gen Z (18-24).

3. Consumers show willingness to share personal data for better premiums.

90% of Gen Z respondents, 75% of Gen Y respondents, and 65% of Xennial respondents said they would share their data in some shape or form.
Smartwatches and smart devices are the most favoured methods amongst the generations.
When asked “What would convince you to have insurance?”, the leading answer among uninsured respondents was ‘more affordable premiums’ (58%).

Joanna Lewis, Partner, Capco Canada, said:

“Insurers can deliver value-add customer experiences that create more customer touchpoints over the policy term. Most consumers are not engaging with their financial products actively, impacting the level of their insurance coverage. Our Canadian and global data reveals confidence, availability of information, and education levels have a dramatic effect on the number of policies owned. We therefore advise insurers to make customer engagement a priority, and one of the ways they can do this is by giving consumers reasons to engage and by demystifying insurance, such as through simplified offerings, apps and providing personalized insights.”

About Capco

Capco is a global technology and management consultancy specializing in driving digital transformation in the financial services industry. With a growing client portfolio comprising of over 100 global organizations, Capco operates at the intersection of business and technology by combining innovative thinking with unrivalled industry knowledge to fast-track digital initiatives for banking and payments, capital markets, wealth and asset management, insurance, and the energy sector. Capco’s cutting-edge ingenuity is brought to life through its Innovation Labs, and award-winning Be Yourself At Work culture and diverse talent. To learn more, visit www.capco.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn Instagram, and Xing.

Survey methodology

The survey was conducted online in April and May 2021 and collected responses from 1008 Canadian respondents and a total of 13,798 individuals globally. The markets surveyed were the UK, US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Country representative quotas were followed. Survey respondents were drawn from six age demographics: 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65+. 49% of respondents identified as male, 50% identified as female, and 1% identified as other.