The features of the direct insurance: Russian and foreign experience

The direct insurance (the distribution channel, which allows for the direct sale of the insurance policy without any intermediaries through the Internet or the call-center) is one of the main modern trends in the insurance market. This paper deals with the features of the direct insurance in Russia and abroad. The goal of the paper is to compare the main aspects of the development of the direct insurance in Russian and foreign markets. There are several tasks, which should be solved in order to reach the goal: firstly, the author should describe the main features of the model of the direct insurance in general, secondly, we should consider the situation on the foreign (mainly European) direct insurance markets, thirdly, the analysis of the Russian market is required with the description of the main factors, which influence the development of the direct insurance in Russia both from the insurer’s and the insured points of view. In order to solve the last task, besides the analysis of different expert opinions, the usability test of several insurance companies was made and the results were compared with the foreign insurance company. As a result, the following conclusion was made: the benefits of the direct insurance are not obvious neither for the insurance companies, nor to their clients in Russia. The main factor, that influence the nowadays situation is the market limitations, such as undeveloped legislation, the structure of the distribution channels on the insurance market, the features of pricing and so on, which makes the development of the direct insurance less attractive for the companies. Moreover, the research shows, that the insurance companies pay little attention to the usability of their online-calculators, which decreases the demand of the clients for this distribution channel. As for the perspectives of the development of the direct insurance in Russia, the prognosis is not very positive, since the majority of the existing problems are not going to solve themselves in the nearest future. However, there are some trends in the legislation sphere: there are some laws being considered in the present time, which may change the situation for better.