By Keith Martin, Co-Executive Director, CAFII
CAFII recently posted a new motion-graphic video to its website and on YouTube that explains the features and benefits of critical illness credit protection insurance and disability credit protection insurance.
The two-minute video describes how these insurance products work, and how they provide protection against different types of risk.
For example, Disability Insurance will pay all or part of an insured person’s monthly debt obligation to their bank or credit union while they are unable to work due to disability. In contrast, Critical Illness Insurance is not related to ability to work, and an insured person can receive a benefit regardless of their employment status. This type of insurance can pay off all or a portion of the insured debt obligations in one lump sum, thereby freeing up money for other uses.
The video is the latest in a series aimed at simplifying insurance products and services for Canadian consumers. It supplements six other educational videos already on the website that explain how popular consumer insurance products such as Mortgage Life Insurance, Travel Insurance, Travel Medical Insurance, and Credit Protection Insurance work. There is also a video that explains who CAFII is and how we are trying to make insurance simple, accessible and affordable for Canadians.
Our consumer-facing website was created in 2017 to help Canadians become more aware of the range of insurance options available in Canada and to understand more about them. Since then, we have added definitions and explanations for more than a dozen types of insurance, a series of frequently asked questions, vignettes about the benefits of various insurance products, and information with links for making an insurance claim to a CAFII member financial institution. We even have details about consumer research commissioned by CAFII, and news about the Association.
As an association, we have made consumer education a priority because our members believe that informed consumers can make better insurance choices to fit their personal circumstances, and that they are ultimately more satisfied with their experience when they choose the right products.
That’s one of the reasons we continue to add new content to our website each year. For example, we recently added some new product definitions, consumer situation example vignettes, and FAQs to the website, and we are planning to add another three new videos and some new consumer research later this year.
To date, our efforts have been well received by consumers who find surfing the web a convenient way to get information, especially during a pandemic. For example, our website attracted 28,000 visitors last year, a 34% increase over 2019.
While we’re pleased that a record number of consumers came to our website last year to learn more about insurance, we hope that even more will discover us in 2021!