Exploring AI in Financial Advice, Consumer Duty, and Key Protection Insights: Highlights from Protection Guru
This week sees another exciting week here at Protection Guru with our joint regular forum with the Consumer Duty Alliance. Our second session is due to take place on Thursday 21st November at 12pm where our very own Ian McKenna will be discussing ‘’AI in Financial Advice – A beginners guide.’’ As mentioned by Ian McKenna previously, ‘’It is hard not to worry about the impact of AI on the future of our work and our lives. Personally, I believe it will have an amazing positive effect on our future, but it is certainly not without its dangers and absolutely cannot be ignored.’’ This is a forum not missed. Click on the following link to register here
With the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) upcoming market study into pure protection, concerns have been raised that capping or removing commissions, or introducing a fixed fee model could lead to poor customer outcomes. The study will focus solely on individual policies, including term assurance, critical illness, income protection and guaranteed acceptance, rather than the underwriting of these products, but rather how they are distributed to customers, what that distribution chain looks like and the effectiveness of competition in this area. This raises the question, if protection products were designed today what would the commission structure look like?
Turning to our various content last week, Amanda Newman-Smith provided a readworthy insight into why wealth advisers are perfectly placed for protection opportunities. If you didn’t get chance to read this article I cannot stress enough how valuable this article is. In this article we hear from Consumer Duty Alliance chief executive Keith Richards highlighting why wealth advisers have not consciously turned their backs on protection, it is just the way the market has developed. But Consumer Duty brings protection back into stark focus for all consumers. Interestingly, Keith shared that over 80% of new clients come from existing referrals with those being referred to them also tend to be wealthy and of a similar age demographic. In this article Keith also shares what training and support is available to make protection relevant to advisers and their clients. Consumer Duty is now the catalyst driving more advisers towards addressing protection with their clients. Keith also shares his views on the regulatory steer, highting “The Consumer Duty gives everyone an obligation or responsibility to now address a client’s identifiable needs to meet their financial goals and avoid foreseeable harm. If you don’t provide a service to satisfy all recognised needs, then you have an obligation to make sure that you signpost to someone who does,” says Richards. “So, we’ve got a wider collaboration opportunity here.” For any adviser in the wealth industry, I reccomend you take the time to read this article.
Another great article from Gary Waters, sharing his knowledge on when is the optimal time to present your protection advice A great article for advisers with every level of experience.
World Diabetes Day was launched in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to the rapid increase of diabetes cases around the world with World Diabetes Day being held on 14th November in which I shared the intricacies of diabetes coverage within critical illness and Protection Guru’s Dr’s views.
And our week was wrapped up with a reminder of our weekly consumer duty training sessions
Our final protection forum for 2024 is fast approaching, how quickly has this year gone? In December’s forum we’ll be looking back over 2024 and what the industry did well. We’ll also be exploring ”If you were writing a Christmas wish list for the protection industry in 2025 – what would be your wishes”. What is going to be a lively and interactive discussion, if you havent already, you can sign up here
