Lots of new year wishes
December Protection Forum
We had an amazing turnout for December’s Protection Forum, with over 120 attendees. What a fabulous way to round up 2022.
Advisers confirmed their wishes for change in the protection industry in 2023, with insurers eagerly digesting the feedback and where they can collaborate to make improvements for advisers and their customers. With an array of feedback and thoughts, and how engagement with consumers is the forefront of adviser wishes, and how this can be improved, January’s forum will focus on ‘How can we better engage consumers in 2023?’
We are very good at talking within the industry, but how can we address the terminology of how we talk to those that are not? How can insurers and advisers engage and market consumers? There will be the opportunity to register for the next session on 10th January 2023 soon.
FTRC Christmas party
The team at FTRC – Protection Guru had a fabulous time celebrating on Thursday, Jason kindly hosted the party, and Ian kindly supplied the wonderful food and drink. Fantastic to have the team together and respective partners. Plus, the fabulous Rupert and Celine – the gorgeous dachshunds. We are now all ready for Christmas and a very well-deserved break when it comes, after a very successful 2022. The plans for 2023 are unfolding and we have so much to bring to the industry.
Also on Protection Guru
We started the week on Protection Guru with a look at who helps advisers introduce Critical Illnes cover to young people. Engaging with younger consumers on the value and importance of protection insurance isn’t easy. With the age of first time buyers increasing and in some cases people kept off the properly ladder entirely, combined with a general decrease in marriage and people starting families later in life, gone are many of the traditional events that may trigger a protection conversation.
On Tuesday, Amanda Newman Smith set out what State Benefits are available when a spouse or partner dies. When someone dies, state benefits such as Universal Credit can provide a financial safety net for their surviving spouse or partner. From April, Universal Credit and a raft of other state benefits will increase by 10.1% in line with inflation which is helpful. The government will also provide households on means-tested benefits with an additional £900 Cost of Living Payment in 2023/24.
Later in the week, Adam Higgs explored the Income Protection product feature that can have a big impact on cost. Income protection insurance has arguably never been more important. With many families struggling with the cost of living, long-term sickness absence from work could have a catastrophic impact on many households finances. Ensuring the policy is affordable and meets the needs of the client is crucial, one area where this is especially relevant is the defer period.
Can Added Value Benefits keep the North Pole running? Adam Higgs aswered this question on Thursday. Over the last couple of years “added value benefits” have become a core component of most protection plans. It seems that every insurer now offers wider benefits that can help consumers stay healthy both in mind and body as well as benefits that can improve recovery or lessen the effects of injury or ill health. With Christmas fast approaching we wondered how such benefits might be utilized in the hard-working machine that is the North Pole and which members of Santa’s team are most likely to use the different services available.
We ended the week with a look back at the Most Read articles on Protection Guru in 2022 (10-6). It has been another busy year on Protection Guru with even more page views and visitors to the site as well as the launch of our BRAND NEW ProtectionGuruPro tool. To wrap up the year we we have looked through our MI to understand what the most read articles were on the site. In the first of a two part series today, we run down from 10 to 6 on the list.
