What people are saying

“ProtectionGuruPro has transformed how we are able to present clients with their options for protection products. The cheapest plans are rarely the best value. Using Protection Guru we have found that around 75% of people would rather pay a little more to get a better value plan.

Adopting the system is a key part of our preparation for Consumer Duty. The addition of replacement business comparisons for critical illness, including all historic Vitality plans, is a huge bonus. Over the last decade, critical illness plans have got better and better, so there is frequently a compelling case for putting new products in place. When it is the right thing to do, the system gives us all the evidence we need to compliantly justify changing providers. Equally it makes it clear which plans need to be left in place.

Add to this, the fact that Critical illness definitions both historic and new, are continually assessed and rated by practicing doctors, it really is the perfect journey for Critical Illness Advice”

ProtectionGuruPro has made a real difference to how I’m able to present protection options to clients. Letting me have a conversation around best value, rather than simply price.

By having the ability to source by best quality, as well as lowest price, it allows the client to see for themselves the additional value they can gain by spending just a few pounds more. This is invaluable as Consumer Duty requires us all to think in terms of best value for clients, not just lowest price. Price only comparisons will struggle to meet this new standard without additonal work from the adviser, so it’s great to have a new system in place now that takes the stress away from the research process. The modest increases in premium that results from taking better value products will also generate additional revenue, so the service could literally pay for itself.

The extension to offer a comparison of historic critical illness plans based on an analysis by qualified medical professionals, including the complex PruProtect and Vitality plans that not been included on legacy comparison systems in the past, is a massive step forward. The complexity of critical illness wordings is such that these can really only be fully assessed by doctors, as no adviser would want to jeopardize a cleints ability to claim by replacing a plan with something that offers less protection than they currently enjoy. This opens the door for us to provide better quality reviews of in-force plans, all using one system, rather than having premium, quality and legacy plan information spread across multiple systems. Given the major enhancements to policy wording is in recent years this is a great extra benefit we can offer our clients to ensure they are paying for the best protection they can comfortably afford.

“Protection Guru has developed to complement Elvis, LifeSearch advisers’ e-learning platform, in a highly effective way, keeping us bang up to date and sharpening our focus too. An outstanding addition to our market.”

“The information being collated and shared by ProtectionGuru.co.uk has been an invaluable resource over the last few weeks. Pretty much any information an intermediary needs is available, all in one place. From current underwriting stances, to the insurer’s approach to towards helping people in financial difficulty, it’s all there. Our advisers and customer services teams are accessing this excellent resource on a daily basis. Thank you and keep up the good work!”

“We commend the work of the Protection Guru.  We find this very useful resource and use its features and topics regularly in our staffs monthly CPD.  It is a regular contributor to our professional standards.

What we love is those detail topics and comparisons of insurer products, like fracture cover and underwriting evidence.  The reality is that few brokers have the resources to do such research so having the Protection Guru do it is very helpful.”

Protection Guru is an invaluable resource. I consider it to be the industry’s most comprehensive source of data, insight, provider and product knowledge. It empowers advisers to deliver better outcomes and promote protection with confidence. I can say with certainty that I would be less effective as an adviser without Protection Guru.”

“Definitely great source of information- I still see advisors talking about advising just on cost yet it is only half of the story and Protection Guru is great at providing much more detailed qualitative data to help you research the best solutions and to explain why they are you are recommending them.”

“The Protection Guru summaries you pull together really are exceptionally useful – thanks very much!  There are a lot of us at Beckett reading them and they are very much appreciated.”

“Personally, as Cabinet Office Disability and Access Ambassador for the insurance industry and profession plus Access To Insurance Working Group Chair, I hugely value and welcome the highly innovative one stop information service, professional development and support plus improving client outcomes hub, backed by independent medical expertise, that Protection Guru has developed and made available to intermediaries. The proposition has something for all types of adviser and planner at each stage of the client lifetime journey, adding significant value to specialist and non-specialist intermediary firms alike – This supported with associated discussion groups that enables learning and best practice to be shared. The services provided by the hub individually and collectively greatly aid advisers enter and re-enter the protection market and as a result, it can and does aid improve access to appropriate insurance solutions.

I additionally applaud the team for their horizon scanning, strategic thinking and agile working when the Covid 19 pandemic hit for very quickly appreciating that reinsuer and provider underwriting philosophies and risk appetites would become very fluid plus provider business as usual ability to access medical evidence constrained  with this seeing Protection Gura as a consequence set up its “ all in one place” Covid underwriting microsite that kept and keeps advisory firms up to date with underwriting changes and developments in real time plus proactively updates intermediaries – As Access To Insurance Working Group Chair it’s important to me that the value of this initiative is fully appreciated as it has, and continues, to play a pivotable role in aiding advisers access the best underwriting terms and outcomes for their clients and we should be in no doubt, this service  played a significant role pre Covid19 vaccine roll out in keeping protection insurance accessible to the many.

As one who played a part in the development of the Seven Families initiative and who for 25 years has sought to replicate in the UK the intermediary support provided to US brokers by www.lifehappens.org, I welcome the development of the Protection Guru claims hub which was designed to provide advisers with a single destination to obtain claims statistics, insurer claim processes and claims stories from across the industry to hopefully drive better client conversations and help overcome objections.”

“The spring of 2020 was an extremely challenging time for individuals and businesses the world over.  Our industry was no different.  Providers were having to regularly respond to the pandemic by restricting  underwriting rules and change processes.  It was a hugely challenge for advisers and distributors to keep up with these daily changes in order to offer their customers the correct and appropriate advice.  Protection Guru quickly recognised this need and stepped up to the mark by collating the daily changes throughout the industry, formatting them in an easy to read fashion and then quickly publishing them.  Advisers, providers and indeed many in the industry found this single point of reference invaluable and helped to keep our market buoyant in the most challenging of times.”

“Protection Guru provide an invaluable service to advisers with their regular insights, but where they really stood out for me was in their response to the pandemic through their COVID hub. Keeping up to date with insurer changes was becoming a full time job, so having all this data in one easy to access location was brilliant and allowed advisers to spend more time helping clients and less time asking insurers about their changes. We even linked to the hub from our internal network so advisers could access the data with ease.  And what’s more is that it was provided free of charge to advisers.”

“The COVID19 pandemic has brought waves of change in the insurance industry over the last 12 months, with everyone having to sail the seas of uncertainty in terms of underwriting outcomes due to understandable changes made by insurers. ProtectionGuru have certainly helped advisers understand the new stances of underwriters and the impact this has on client enquiries. Having regular email alerts and a central reference point was fantastic for our team, and we’re very thankful for their efforts in making this possible.”

“I always leave the Protection Forum with more knowledge & industry positivity than I entered, and the in-meeting chat indicates other attendee’s do too. The importance & value of the Forum is its ability to bring various parties (advisers, insurers, software/tech developers) together to voice, share, question & learn from each other to improve & advance the participants, their client propositions, the products available, the processes supporting them & ultimately the client experience. It feels like an opportunity to make a difference and shape the future.”

“Protection Guru is a great platform for advisers and insurers to hear each others good and poor points in the industry. You see more advisers and insurers working together now and making changes which is then better for our clients. The topics of conversations is always useful, and you can learn so much and connect with other advisers. If you ever need support (& trust me you do) you know you can reach out to another adviser, insurer or Protection Guru and you will have the support you need. I’d recommend any adviser new and old to join the forums as there is always something to learn.”

“I view the Protection Forum as a core element of my professional development.”

“Protection Forum is THE Go-To Forum for topical debates with a great cross-section of experienced industry professionals, with the common objective of seeking improvements for the benefit of clients and all stakeholders in the process.”

“The team at Protection Guru are excellent and operate an ever-increasing supportive framework to adviser, insurers and distributors which helps to raise the profile of relevant topics for the industry.”

“I learnt a huge amount and it was encouraging to see so many like-minded people from various different roles within the industry offer their perspective but with a clear desire to make a positive difference within the protection space.”

“Valuable meeting, I like the collaborative aspect with everyone sharing. Its also reassuring when others are hitting the same barriers are you so hopefully we can come together to drive change.”

“Very insightful session which not only raises important points that the industry should be discussing, but also useful as a reminder of some initiatives that we can do as a business to better serve our customers.”

“An excellent forum, that is right on point for our business. Driving Financial Protection forward and giving clients real advice is what we are dedicated to so both Items on the agenda are extremally important to us. I am looking forward in being involved in more in the future and will share ideas we develop as a company to help all our clients get the right protection even in the hardest of circumstances.”

“These forums are great. It allows you to voice your opinions and concerns to your peers, which gets you valuable feedback. It’s also comforting to hear that they have very similar issues and frustrations. I like the fact the insurers get involved and give you valuable insight in their world that we usually don’t see or understand. What I also like about the insurers attending is that they are there to listen to us “as their client” and genuinely care about improving their process, systems, contracts and more importantly our own client journey. The forums are regular enough but not too much. I look forward to these forums and speaking with like-minded people who genuinely care about our industry.”