Regulators, insurers and brokers must do much more to stamp out bad practice in the world of lead generators, experts have warned.
Alain Desmier, founder of lead generation compliance specialist Contact State, and Emma Thomson, founder of the Women in Protection network, have welcomed efforts to root out rogue advertisers, but said more needs to be done.
Speaking on the latest FTAdviser In Focus podcast, Desmier said: "A lot of misleading advertising and data reselling has gone on, but they hadn't been able to articulate it before.
"But the Advertising Standards [Authority] as a regulator has become more muscular. It is good at pointing out now, with much more frequency, that there are standards and these should be upheld."
Thomson said: "We do need to help more people - especially females - to take out protection cover. And lots of consumers, both men and women, do massively undervalue the primary carer.
"But we can't scare people into [buying insurance] and ultimately those people could end up having a bad experience when they get through to these companies advertising in this way, and walk away completely and never want to try to get insurance again because they think we are trying to hoodwink them."
Both urged the industry to highlight potentially misleading adverts to the regulators. "I believe it is all our duty, if we see an advert we do not like, to report it to the Financial Conduct Authority and to the ASA", Desmier added.
To listen to the full podcast, click the link above.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
