Changes to Critical Illness (CI) cover have been exponential over the past decade, meaning a client who took out CI cover in 2015, which doesn’t seem that long ago, may find their existing cover lagging behind the current market offering in terms of quality. At Protection Guru, we work closely with providers to understand product changes, appraise and score definitions and regularly share these changes with the adviser community meaning they can compare existing cover with confidence.
With all but a handful of providers offering new features to existing clients many clients may find themselves at a disadvantage at the point of claim. This makes the need for regular reviews paramount, with Consumer Duty firmly embedded the need to avoid foreseeable harm has never been greater.
Over the past three or four years we’ve seen providers refine CI definitions and increase limits on additional payments with one provider moving from an additional payment of the lower of 25% of the cover amount or £50,000 to the lower of 50% or £50,000. Surely, good news for those clients with lower cover amounts, but in the absence of regular reviews and thorough analysis it’s academic, the client is unlikely to have the appetite or technical ability to compare their existing cover against the current market offering. This reinforces the need for regular reviews, thorough analysis of their CI cover and the value of ongoing advice.
The process of refreshing a client’s CI cover can be complex, they will have clearly aged, they may have developed some longer-term health condition and cover may be more expensive. However, conversely, they may have developed better habits such as stopping smoking, losing weight or engaging in healthier pastimes, from my own experience the older I’ve got my appetite for better habits has grown as life flies by.
Trying to navigate comparisons without tools such as Protection Guru Pro (PGP) can feel both time consuming and a little daunting. PGP helps advisers compare the value of the client’s existing cover against the current market within minutes, highlighting changes in definition wordings, (which are reviewed and scored by our independent panel of doctors), changes to additional payment amounts and drawing the eye to any changes to value added benefits. Add to the fact PGP is fully integrated with UnderwriteMe, advisers can explore the impact of any disclosures and whether a refresh of the client’s CI is going to be too expensive with new terms, or indeed viable.
As mentioned earlier PGP is the ideal tool to help you explore the value of your client’s existing CI plan against plans currently available in the market within minutes. Join us for one of our free 60-minute webinars, gain some much-needed CPD evidence and if you’re a new user get access to a 30-day trial all in one fell swoop.
So, whether you’re new to PGP or an existing user keen to understand how to compare quality, price and value in one go, you’re in the right place.
As a new PGP user, we’ll show you how to obtain a 30-day free trial for PGP and how to link the pricing and underwriting feeds enabling you to highlight value to your clients from day one.
The sessions will be led by one of our Protection Gurus, Jason Coleman, who brings over three decades of Financial Services experience alongside 20 years as a seasoned learning professional and almost a decade of market insight having worked for Guardian.
We’ve a total of seven, hour long webinars, you’ll see the date, time, and themes below, these are refreshed weekly, so you’ll always see the schedule for the next seven weeks:
Thursday 21st August 3pm-4pm – Providing Life Protection advice for Mortgage and Wealth Management advisers
Wednesday 27th August 11am-12pm – Why only assessing Critical Illness plans for Quality & Value fails FCA Consumer Duty requirements – And how to fix it
Wednesday 27th August 4pm-5pm – Are you missing out on one of the industry’s best free resources? (The Product Features Report) – iPipeline SolutionBuilder users
Monday 1st September 11am-12pm – Are you missing out on the best way to cover families cheaply? – The case for Family Income Benefit
Tuesday 2nd September 4pm-5pm – Are you missing out on one of the industry’s best free resources? (The Product Features Report) – iPipeline SolutionBuilder users
Wednesday 17th September 10am-11am – Are you missing out on one of the industry’s best free resources? (The Product Features Report) – iPipeline SolutionBuilder users
Wednesday 17th September 1pm-2pm – Exploring Income Protection Advice
