Financial education leaves insurance ’off the table’ – Black Girl Finance

“Financial exclusivity” – the opposite of financial inclusivity – does not solely come from financial constraints, but also involves a “lack of understanding” around the value associated with insurance and other financial products.

That was according to Selina Flavius, founder and chief executive of Black Girl Finance, who spoke during a session entitled Financial inclusion: can insurance and long-term investment savings be both inclusive and profitable? at the ABI conference last week (27 February 2024).

Founded in 2019, Black Girl Finance is a financial coaching, advice and planning company with the mission to “enhance access to [financial] products and services for women” from Caribbean and other black ethnic backgrounds.

When asked what  the “barriers” to making insurance inclusive were, Flavius explained that there were “lots of talks about financial education and financial inclusion” but “conversations around insurance are left off the table”.

She explained: “We are having conversations around ‘pensions and how we should invest our money, but that insurance conversation gets left behind.”

Importance

Flavius noted that the industry needs to “facilitate the conversations around [insurance]” as there is a “real lack of education around the importance of it”.

She referred to a personal anecdote and explained: “I’m a widow and I lost my partner two years ago. He did not have insurance and it wasn’t an affordability issue. I just think, for him, no one educated him around having it.”

Flavius explained that there is an importance for consumers to be educated on insurance and there are ways the insurance industry could help to educate consumers.

For example, Black Girl Finance has a WhatsApp group where “there is always someone looking for insurance,” explained Flavius.