Tom Conner on the Lessons from the Drewberry Protection Insurance Survey 2015 – MPAF33

In a research survey, you’d usually associate with major provider companies, Drewberry Insurance’s Protection survey lifts the lid on what consumers think of life insurance, critical illness and income protection.

Whilst the results aren’t surprising they do remind us that we must renew our efforts to push out positive messages.

Listen to Tom explain why Drewberry set up the survey, what the sample was and the headline results.

Hear about the three top reasons consumers don’t consider protection insurance. Those three primary reasons are unchanged in almost twenty years and highlight more than ever before, the need for face to face financial advice.

That’s all right here in episode 33 of the Marketing Protection and Finance Podcast.

Tom Connor MPAF33

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Who is Tom Conner?

Tom is a director at Drewberry Insurance.

He was an adviser for 5 years but now spends most of his time running the business and managing a team of 15 other advisers.

Before that he worked in the City after graduating with a master’s degree in finance from Cambridge University.

Tom believes passionately about educating the wider public about the need for protection, and income protection in particular.

Outside of work Tom can often be found at the rugby watching England or the Harlequins and has the goal of skiing on every continent of the world, having already ticked three off the list

Things Tom and I discussed:

Tom’s Favourite Apps:

Tom’s Contact links:

Tom’s favourite books:

How to Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

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Is “Financial Rescue” a Better Name than Daft “Protection”?

Protection is a daft name for personal insurances.

I’ve always known that but inertia means we all stick to using it. But maybe it’s about time we did change it to something that means more to our customers.

Financial Rescue

Google “protection” and you won’t find links to financial products like life insurance and critical illness cover on the first few pages.

You’ll find insect repellant, condoms, airbags, and warm clothing. To the man on the street, it’s fairly obvious what these products provide protection against.

  • Insect repellent protects you from getting eaten alive by mosquitos when you go to the Caribbean. Or by midges if you go to Scotland.
  • Condoms protect against unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
  • Airbags protect car drivers and their passengers against injury in an accident.
  • Warm clothes protect you against the cold.

So, following the same logic from those bleeding obvious statements,  it’s easy to work out what protection insurance is for. Isn’t it?

  • Life insurance protects you from dying.
  • Critical illness insurance protects you from getting a critical illness.

Erm…

But of course they don’t, do they?

  • Life insurance protects your family or business against the financial consequences of dying.
  • Critical illness cover protects you, your family or business against the financial consequences of getting a critical illness.

So it’s not immediately obvious what our type of protection does. We need to explain it. And we don’t engage people, as a result.

So what could we call it as an alternative?

I recently took out a week’s trial on a software package called Grammarly. For writers, it checks grammar, spelling and points out when you overdose on passive language. My son was finding English difficult at school and I thought it would help. I forgot about the seven-day deadline and soon had a year’s subscription. I started using it to check my work.

First of all it shouted at me.

I was using the word “protection” too often it screamed.

Helpfully it provided some alternatives. “Security” was its favourite. But “security” is just as inappropriate as “protection”. So no help from Grammarly just a reminder that I overuse a term no one understands.

Then I was listening to Alan Newman speaking at the Protect Association meeting in London on the 16 January.

He suggested we should rename protection as, “Financial Rescue”.

I like that.

Financial Rescue!

Then the geek in me started thinking about International Financial Rescue and I started humming the Thunderbirds theme tune.

Calling International Financial Rescue

In my head, I could already see the TV advert (and the size of the budget I’d need to pay the royalties to Gerry Anderson’s estate).

  • Thunderbird One is life insurance.
  • Thunderbird Two is critical illness cover.
  • And Thunderbird Three is income protection.

Take out a subscription to International Financial Rescue and if you become ill or die they’ll send in the Financial Thunderbirds to sort you or your family out.

Now it’s Your Turn:

Okay International Financial Rescue exposes me as a Sci-Fi Fanboy. But that a better way of describing protection insurance? What do you think? What other alternatives could we use? Please post your ideas as a comment below. Or post a link to your own articles.

Caroline Hawkins on Critical Illness Cover and Business Protection – MPAF21

If you’d spent seven years fighting an insurance company for a critical illness claim payment would you have become a passionate advocate for the product?

My guest today is a financial adviser who dealt with just such a prolonged claim.

Rather than put her off protection insurance, Caroline says the experience created a passion for protection. Now she focusses on protection advice. Particularly critical illness cover and business protection.

Caroline uses compelling stories to convince her clients of the need for protection insurance.

My guest on Episode 21 of the Marketing Protection and Finance Podcast is Caroline Hawkins.

Caroline Hawkins on Critical Illness Cover and Business Protection

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Who is Caroline Hawkins?

Caroline works for Direct Finance Solutions Ltd.

She’s an experienced, fully qualified, independent adviser specialising in Business Protection including tax-efficient Life Cover, Key Person cover and Shareholder protection; Personal Protection including Life Cover, Critical Illness Cover and Income protection; Large Loan Mortgages including International Mortgages and Buy-to-Let portfolios.

Her aim is to help people and corporate clients take control of their finances in a friendly and professional way whilst bringing financial peace of mind. Like many financial advisers, Caroline concentrates on building long-term relationships with her clients.

Listen to Caroline’s stories about critical illness cover and business protection. Hear her opinions on whether protection is too complex and where the products should go in future.

Caroline’s links:

Caroline’s favourite book:

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

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