Medical insurance added to LifeDirect

Media release
For immediate release
31 August 2007

Medical insurance added to LifeDirect

Purchasing health insurance online has now become a reality for New Zealanders as the country's leading online life insurance provider LifeDirect adds medical options to its online offering.

LifeDirect was the first New Zealand website to give consumers the ability to purchase life insurance online, and now with medical insurance in its range of options, an increasing number of New Zealanders are choosing the LifeDirect channel of evaluating and purchasing their life and medical insurance.

The website's users can choose between medical insurance providers Sovereign and Tower Health & Life Ltd, and can go through the entire quoting, application and purchasing process online. The addition of medical insurance to LifeDirect was the result of feedback from existing customers who wanted to add to their insurance package through LifeDirect.

Director Neil McKenzie expects that many LifeDirect life insurance customers will return to the site for their health insurance, giving the Christchurch-based company valuable repeat business.

“LifeDirect has become an essential service for our customers. Answering questions online is often easier for them than filling out lengthy forms by hand, and now that they have successfully purchased life insurance online they want to continue using LifeDirect for their medical insurance needs,” Mr McKenzie says.

“It's all about making life easy for our customers, who are already purchasing other services and products online,” he adds.

LifeDirect is also expanding its third party distribution service which gives consumers the ability to purchase life and health insurance online through a range of financial services providers. Providers' own websites can now be hosted on the LifeDirect server in Christchurch, enabling LifeDirect to fully manage the life and health insurance offerings of their third party providers.

“We're currently working with a number of financial services providers such as mortgage and insurance brokers to set up their online insurance offerings. They can choose whether to link to LifeDirect from their existing website, or to make the LifeDirect site their online presence,” Mr McKenzie says.

The third party distribution offering of LifeDirect is attracting financial services providers from throughout New Zealand. “Our brand awareness is building and we are establishing a strong presence in the New Zealand insurance marketplace,” he says.

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