보험판매자의 책임강화방안에 대한 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to suggest institutional schemes for strengthening and disambiguating theresponsibility of independent intermediaries in order to protecting the policyholders’ interest. The great concern to mis-selling has recently arisen in the insurance market. It is the main reason fordamaging consumers’ interest and lowering the trust of insurance market. The damage to the insurancecompanies as well as the consumers is therefore severe. Insurance mis-selling normally happens when a seller does not fulfill the responsibility for delivering thestandard insurance terms to the policyholder, and informing the important contents before entering into aninsurance contract. This type of mis-selling occurs very often in the indirect selling by independentintermediaries. As the GA(General Agent) in Korea becomes bigger and independent, an agency relationshipbetween insurer and GA is not clear. As a result, it is very difficult to identify who is to blame in case ofmis-selling. In order to clarify the responsibility, we suggest short-and long-term institutional schemes. The first shorttermone is to reinforce the responsibility of informing the important contents, but to maintain the existingagency relationship between insurer and GA. This means that intermediaries should consult the policyholderabout product materials and the policyholder fully recognizes the product before entering into an insurancecontract. The second short-term scheme is to impose the primary responsibility on intermediaries when they do notperform their responsibility mentioned in the first one. However, this is not to rid the insurer’s liability. The long-term one is to separate the contractual relationship into exclusive and non-exclusive intermediaries. The former keeps up the existing agency relationship, but the latter changes into the relationship as insurancebroker. The term “insurance broker” is defined as a person who carries on the business of arranging contractsof insurance as agent for intending insureds. The insurance brokers deal with the products of several insurersand do not have an exclusive relationship with the insurers. They are independent intermediaries and thereforeresponsible for mis-selling. A company specializing in selling insurance products may be recommended inaddition to insurance broker. This company is also an insurance broker and takes complete responsibility formis-selling. If the company does not have repayment ability, it is solved primarily by professional liability insurance. Then the remaining problem is resolved by the brokerage contract between the company and insurer.