“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.

William Shakespeare

The recent trend of renaming of life insurance agents to financial advisors, often without the requisite upgrade in skills, must respond to the insight of that most famous of English bard’s that, irrespective of what you are called, you will be known by your character and your substance.

Hence, the recognition of the need to change your name must lie in the realisation that the name is no longer representative of what you do. If this is the case, what has changed to require the change in name? And what are the implications of the contemplated change?

I believe that those in the industry have realised that their business, for agents and for companies, is about adding value to our customers’ lives through the management of information. Knowledge – that is the application of information to help our customers to improve their lives and their business – is becoming our only product.

Technology, specifically the computer and the Internet, is doing for financial services, what the assembly line did for the manufacture of vehicles - and to the horse and buggy industry.

With the basis of competition in the industry beginning to change from selling products to the management of information and knowledge, the change from ‘Life Underwriter’ to ‘Insurance and Financial Advisor’ is opportune and relevant.

However, there are two key crossover issues that arise out of the change of name.

Firstly, there is the crossover from sales agent to financial advisor. The difference between a sales agent and a professional advisor is analogous to the difference between a medical representative and a physician.

A salesperson’s role is to sell what the company offers – often to fit the client’s situation to one of the solutions you have. The role of a professional is to assess the client’s situation and offer the most relevant solution.

Salespeople need to know their company’s products and services and how these apply to a client’s circumstance. Professionalism requires a deeper understanding of the client’s circumstance and an ability to design the solution that is best suited to that circumstance. The salesperson needs product knowledge while the professional’s product is knowledge.

The second crossover will be from providing life insurance to providing a wider range of insurance and financial services.

For an industry sector that has deep roots and is steeped in tradition, it will be difficult for many of you to even believe that you should change some of the assumptions you hold so dear.

However, industries must change when customers change their behaviour. And customers often change because of key technologies that have not been created by the industry (e.g. insurers did not develop the telephone, the computer or the Internet). Those companies, associations and individuals that are willing to change their assumptions of how value is created in their industry, in order to respond to the needs of their customers, are the ones likely to succeed.

At a minimum, what will be demanded of participants is that they have a much broader knowledge of the sector, from banking to insurance to investment. This may represent something of a challenge for many.

The name change will raise a number of other requirements of the companies and its people, if it is not to be merely cosmetic – ‘old wine in new wine skins’.

Who will need to be recruited into the industry? What training and educational standards will be required? Will insurance and financial advisors be ‘tied’ to an organisation and how will they be paid? Who will regulate these persons, if they are no longer insurance agents? What will happen to those current agents who do not wish or are unable to become insurance and financial advisors?

Understanding the need for the name change will not be enough. The new companies, for that is what the change of name implies, must set its standards for entry, education, performance and behaviour and as importantly, it must enforce them rigorously. It must increase recognition by the public, the government and other professional organisations of the standing and professionalism of its advisors. And it must recognise the twin issues of responsibility and liability that come with the change from salesman to advisor.

Whatever the name, Agents or Advisors and their companies must be sure to define their role, purpose and actions to be in concert with their name. But according to a Chinese proverb “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right name”.