Three articles on Protection Issues caught my attention this week.
Check out what the articles said and what my thoughts are in response.
Do you agree?
1) Research adds weight to protection gap – FT Adviser
The article says:
Research from Sainsbury’s Bank Life Insurance, provided by Legal and General, also found that of those without life insurance, 21 per cent did not believe it was necessary and almost half (49 per cent) said they could not afford it.
Read full article on www.ftadviser.com
My thoughts:
Half of people say they cannot afford it and yet research by Sun Life (and discussed at the Protection Review Conference) suggested 50% of people have absolutely NO IDEA how much Life Assurance costs.
The other half over-estimated the cost by 400%.
This suggests that the reality is that people “assume” they can’t afford it rather than they can’t “actually” afford it.
Research like this is all very well. It rams home a point that companies have made for 20 years. It always makes column inches in the Trades.
But what are Sainsbury’s Bank Life Insurance going to do about this? How are we going to over-come the perception that people have?
We need more positive communications out there. And that doesn’t mean more TV advertising – but a flood of content from providers, advisers, reinsurers and trade bodies.
Who’s up for that?
2) Tom Baigrie: Industry must generate positive protection headlines – Money Marketing
The article says:
It is our job as a collective industry to make as much noise as we can about what we do very well almost every time. The annual publishing of claims paid statistics and their continuing improvement have started that process creditably but they will now inevitably only live on as background noise. We need some new news.
Read full article on www.moneymarketing.co.uk
My thoughts:
Agree whole heartedly with Tom. I’ve said for ages that we need to tell more positive stories.
Not just a few. Loads.
7 Families is a great campaign but we need 7000 families.
Every claim is a potential video, audio, article, blog post or case study.
Future success and growth in the protection market will rest with the “Social Financial Adviser”.
3) Why are big providers holding back on UnderwriteMe? – Money Marketing
The Article says:
Concerns over expensive system changes and losing market dominance are holding back major providers from signing up to quote comparison software provider UnderwriteMe.
The software aims to simplify the protection sales process by providing fully underwritten prices at the point of sale.”
Read full article on www.moneymarketing.co.uk
My thoughts:
Two decades of price competition has created the “need” for Underwrite me.
The cheap rates that most providers put on the portals to hit that coveted top three stop are largely an illusion.
1 in 4 applicants, maybe more, end up paying higher premiums after underwriting. But providers won’t stop playing the price game because the industry continues to believe that cheapest is best (even though consumers have no idea how much protection costs at all).
UnderwriteMe solves this industry created problem. It gives the customer more information and an accurate price – and not a portal rate they might not get.
Some companies play this illusionary price game better than anyone else so it’s no surprise they want to stick with the things as they are.
What are you thoughts on these issues?
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