For our July Protection Forum we brought together advisers and insurers to discuss protection insurance and the cost of living crisis
For our first session we focused on:
- How can we continue to grow the protection market and write new business at a time of tightening individual and household budgets?
To kick off the discussion we heard from Sarah Moore from Auxilium and Jamie Page from The Exeter, both of whom brought with them unique and interesting perspectives. Sarah provides a range of support services and training to advisers, including mortgage brokers, whilst Jamie manages strategic partnerships for product provider, The Exeter.
“Resilience is a word that I think is really resonating with consumers at the moment. We’re talking about financial resilience for those people who struggled, maybe on half pay or furlough during COVID and then coming out the other side and seeing the impact on the cost of living, fuel prices, all of those sorts of things.
The wider conversation that followed covered everything from the important role that added value benefits can play in highlighting to clients the value of protection insurance, to the need for proper robust advice processes, rather than merely transactional sales. We also touched on the need for advisers themselves to passionately believe in the products they recommend.
Click the audio playback below to listen to the full session.
Full session audio
Part 1:
Part 2:
“What we’ve seen from some of our research on average savings, and currently this is post pandemic, so slightly inflated because we had nowhere to go, is [families have] about £6,700. But we do know that currently this year, 1 in 4 are already dipping in. So for me, there’s never been a greater need for income protection.
[We need] the sales process to embed that protection conversation, at every single touchpoint with that client. It’s talking about it [protection insurance] more, certainly income protection. It’s more affordable than most of us actually think with the average cost [around] £32 per month for IP. Sometimes a client will think it’s going to be too expensive, but actually it can be more affordable.”
Insurer tools and resources for advisers
Amongst the points made by Sarah Moore was that she encourages the advisers she supports to make full use of insurer resources, such as calculators and other tools to assist during the client conversation. Amongst the insurers referenced by Sarah, and these are certainly not the only ones who offer these resources, were Royal London and LV=.
Advisers may wish to check out LV=’s Risk Reality Calculator, which highlights the likelihood of their client either dying, falling ill with a critical illness or being forced out of work due to ill health, during the course of their life.
Whilst perhaps not a pleasant thing to think of, it is a useful means of highlighting to the client why protection insurance is necessary. Legal & General also offer something similar.
LV= have an extensive range of other tools and aids for advisers, that can be found here, as do Royal London. Legal & General’s Deadline to the Breadline is another helpful resource, providing useful talking points to weave into a client conversation. The Exeter’s ‘toolkits’ also provide a range of helpful guides, including a personalised client risk report that advisers can create and share with their client.
