What are the differences between Protection Guru and the protection trade press?
Some people seem to be getting confused about the role of Protection Guru. There appears to be a misconception that we are a media site, we are not. The specialist protection trade press plays a very important role publishing stories about a wide range of subjects. By comparison Protection Guru has a very narrow focus; we are all about information that helps advisers in giving advice to consumers and improving the operational efficiency of their businesses. There are many subjects you will find in the specialist media that Protection Guru will not cover, conversely because we are a detailed information service run by people with first-hand experience in advice firms, there are certain areas where we can go further and deeper.
We recently put most of the content on Protection Guru behind secure authentication, so that it can only be accessed by practising industry professionals. This means we will be able to make increasingly granular analysis available to advisers, including extensive information that is not suitable for the general public, as it can only be properly understood by industry professionals.
A good example of this is our claims hub, where we are building comprehensive analysis of insurers claims processes, to give advisers all this information from across the industry in a single location. Something that has never been done before and can help advisors who want to support their clients when they claim, which after all is when the real value of insurance is put to the test.
The various studies on our pages this week are I believe great examples.
Rob Harvey began the Protection Guru week with his insight on How to calculate non-medical underwriting limits for family income benefit. On Wednesday Amanda Newman Smith investigated Which insurers provide advanced payments on life insurance claims going through probate?
Also on Wednesday LV= announced some changes to their added value benefits medical services. We did not cover this on Wednesday because we wanted to produce a more detailed analysis and update existing studies to reflect the LV= changes. This is why early on Thursday Rob produced a summary of What impact do improvements to Liverpool Victoria’s doctor services have? which included links to the earlier analysis which we have now updated.
Later that day Rob addressed another questions we’ve recently been asked about a lot by advisers in an analysis of How useful is total permanent disability benefit on critical illness plans?
We wrapped up the week with our Non-medical underwriting limits – everything you need to know insight, linking through to wealth of individual studies on the subject. Really valuable content for advisers who want to know where they can get a case on risk quickly.
Benefits Guru
On Tuesday Jason Green published his initial analysis of A deeper dive into the Open Finance capabilities of Workplace Pension providers. This was followed up with the second instalment of A deeper dive into the Open Finance Capabilities of Workplace Pension providers part 2 on Thursday. This shows how a small number of pension providers and technology suppliers are making huge advances in an area that has enormous value to customers. I think the Protection industry needs to play catch up in this area quickly.
Forums
The next Protection Forum meeting will take place on Tuesday 8th June at 11am. The agenda for this session is:
- Assuming we do not have a centrally industry-funded campaign, how can the industry better promote protection to general consumers?
- How will the post pandemic world affect income protection claims?
Advisers can register for a free ticket to join the meeting here.
The next Investment Forum meeting will be held on Tuesday 22nd June at 11am. This meeting will focus on Suitability Report Automation and will feature an expert panel discussion of both advisers and technology providers.
Advisers are invited to register for a free ticket via this link.
Have a great weekend everyone.
