Research from LIMRA shows that if a life insurance product is easy to buy, customers tend to be more satisfied with it.

A study of the Latin American life insurance market conducted by LIMRA has found that 40% of people who purchased a life insurance policy and were happy about their experience said it was because of a simple buying process.

The report, Consumer Experience in a Growing Life Market: Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru, also revealed that while family and friend recommendations were the top reasons why people look for life insurance, 24% of compelling prompts to buy a policy came from financial advisors.

As for where people in Latin America do their life insurance shopping, LIMRA says that the Internet is the most popular method of research. However, the report found that three out of of four purchases are still made in person. LIMRA notes that these findings are consistent with consumer behaviour studies it has conducted in the U.S., which found that the number of people who use the Internet to learn about financial products has increased by 10% over the last three years and now stands at 71%.

LIMRA points to one US study which showed that although 19 million people say they are convinced of life insurance’s benefits, they have not taken out coverage because they are confused, frustrated and overwhelmed. “People tell us they want things to be easy — they want a simple, straightforward way to buy their policy without a lot of fuss, technical jargon or paperwork,” comments Kristen Gillis, analyst at LIMRA International Research.