A worldwide survey has found that 93% of consumers want professional advice when buying life insurance.

ReMark International, an insurance marketing company owned by the French reinsurer SCOR, surveyed 8,000 consumers in 14 different countries and found that nearly all insurance buyers want to receive some level of advice when they purchase life insurance. The number of people who purchase products entirely on their own remains marginal. In fact, the number of "execution only buyers" has declined slightly, dropping to 7% from the 8% recorded in last year's survey.

ReMark divides the remaining 93% of advice-seeking customers into three categories. There are "professional advice buyers" who select advisors according to their qualifications, independence, or fees (50% of customers, up from 38% last year), "traditional advice buyers" who choose an advisor based on a personal recommendation or referral (30% of customers, down from 43% last year), and "guided direct buyers" who buy direct but need significant support during the process (13% of customers up from 12% last year).

"In short, customers value the quality of advice, hence the emphasis on advisors’ qualifications," reads the report. "Our research suggests customers want to make an informed decision but still prefer someone helping them with the (at times, tedious) process of insurance application."