Key Protection Industry Insights and Developments: A Week in Review
Today we are making my summary of the previous week the second mailing from Protection Guru, in view of the announcement earlier of Royal London‘s joint life second event plan. You can read my summary of the product here.
Reverting to last week, we were delighted to welcome a new contributor to Protection Guru on Tuesday, Colin Baxter from Mortgages in Lincoln with his piece The Mortgage Package trick that leads to protection conversions this has great advice and tips for advisers wanting to sell more protection products with mortgages.
On Wednesday we published an analysis from Amanda Newman Smith on Why Protection Advisers are encouraging couples to be financially independent
Importantly you can now register for our 9th January Protection Forum on Addressing Harm and Vulnerability options from separating life policies. We have an all-star cast of experts for this event.
Over 100 delegates have already confirmed which meetings they plan to attend for the whole of 2025, so if you would like us to send an invite to you, to all the meetings please drop Samantha Smith a line here
The subjects for the remaining 2025 meeting are as follows. If you only wish to be invited to some events, please let us know which:
5 February – Impact of budget on protection and IHT
4 March – Children’s CIC
1 May – Business protection
3 June – Growing protection advice in the mortgage market
1 July – Reviewable WOL and dealing with older type plans
9 September – Compliance processes, price v quality & understanding of benefits/features available
1 October – Underwriting flexibility
4 November – Annual statements
2 December – How did we do in 2025 and what are you wishes for 2026
Thursday saw us publishing very promptly the first half of the summary from our protection forum meeting two days earlier, which explored what the industry has done well in 2024 including great insights from Scott Taylor-Barr of Barnsdale Financial Management, Michael Chapman from Dynamo and David Thomas from MetLife UK. This is presented not just with highlights of commentaries from the above, but you can listen to the whole debate via the audio recap.
Look out for part two next week which explores what advisers are hoping to see the industry achieve in 2025.
On Friday, our doctors shared views on a subject I rarely hear and protection discussions, the implications of PrEP the medication that now provides very significant protection against HIV for those who take it. Well worth reading in case the subject comes up in a discussion with clients.
Over on our sister site our technical analyst had a look at Ningi a new practice management system for Advisers. If you are looking to upgrade your tech in the near future, or just want to compare this new service to your current proposition it’s well worth looking at this.
And indeed, if you’re looking to review any of your technology, our new technology area on advisersoftware.com should probably be your first port of call. It is packed full of technical information on adviser software created by our team who have firsthand experience of working in adviser firms so understand what is important for advice technology to deliver. I’d particularly the highlight protection technology area where you can look at all the systems designed to help protection firms be more efficient. Access to all of this information is free for financial advisers and their staff.
Other articles that caught my attention last week
The assisted dying debate is clearly going to be one of the big discussion points of 2025 and FT Advisers summary of thoughts from different firms is well worth reading https://www.ftadviser.com/life-insurance/2024/12/2/assisted-dying-to-send-shockwaves-through-life-insurance-industry/
I would also highlight and take this opportunity to thank FT Adviser editor Simoney Kyriakou for sharing her personal experiences on this subject. This is a courageous article which visits real challenges that people will face in the future and I suspect will be an issue clients will seek counsel on in the future. I would encourage everyone to read this, https://www.ftadviser.com/your-profession/2024/12/5/my-dad-made-me-legally-responsible-to-help-him-die-it-is-a-heavy-burden/
It is not surprising that farmers are looking for products to protect and Money Marketing have highlighted research from Reassured which quantifies the extent of this demand
https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/news/sharp-rise-in-farmers-seeking-life-cover-after-iht-changes/
Finally, Money Marketing also looked at valuable data from Red Arc on the increase in cancer patients they are now supporting. Again, some great practical insights here.
https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/news/redarc-support-for-cancer-cases-doubles/
As you will have seen from our earlier commentary on the Royal London Launch this morning, we may be in the run up to Christmas, but actually this is going to be a busy week in Protection with several new developments being announced.
Have a great week.
