News Review: Protection
Market confident protection sales will rise
by Kevin Carr, chief executive of the Protection Review and MD of Kevin Carr Consulting
the individual protection insurance market remains confident about the future, according to a poll of 50 industry names consulted by Swiss re in march for its latest term and Health Watch report. respondents were asked
what they thought would happen to various markets over the next year and the responses were: Sales of long term individual protection policies were up
Product Life
Critical Illness Income Protection
Level 20% 20% 15%
3.4% to 2,557,569 in 2010. in the term assurance market Legal & general, aviva and Lloyds tSB led the way with the most sales, while HSBc and Friends Life shifted the most income protection policies. it is also interesting to note
that in 2010 there were: • almost three term sales for every ci sale • almost 14 term sales for every iP sale • over four term sales for every whole life sale • almost five ci sales for every iP sale • over three whole life sales for every iP sale the current view of the protection market, where
Decrease Increase 7%
13% 11%
23% 16% 24%
sales are mostly flat across most areas, depends on who you ask. Some say the market is slowly dying, while others suggest that flat sales during difficult economic times are very encouraging, especially while mortgage lending continues to struggle. However, despite this
optimism more than half (56%) of adults in the uK have no life insurance in place at all according to the Scottish Widows consumer Protection report, published in may, even though 97% said they were aware of the product and the importance of having it. the poll of 5,148 adults
in February by Yougov also found that more uK adults insure their pets (15%) and mobile phone (13%) than they do their income in case of ill health (7% having income protection and 12% critical illness cover).
ABI: Improving industry reputation is the priority
Improving the insurance industry’s reputation is a priority, director general Otto Thoresen told the Association of British Insurers biennial conference, recently. At the conference the ABI and KPMG launched
a survey of 57 insurance leaders which cited the new regulatory structure, the influence of the EU and reputation as the industry’s biggest concerns. While improvements in the claim process
alongside the publication of claims statistics has improved the industry’s reputation amongst some IFAs and the media, the message isn’t getting through to consumers. Talking to those within the market suggestions on how
to further improve the industry’s reputation include more advertising, an appropriate protection qualification and greater promotion of paid claim statistics. Some 39% of those polled said the industry’s
greatest strength is helping customers at their time of need (as did 18% of members of the pub- lic polled), while 21% said that it was insurance’s contribution to the economy. A third of leaders said insurance’s greatest
weakness was its reputation, followed by how it interacts with customers. Two thirds of execu- tives said the industry needs to do more to show customers that it delivers a good service.
Powerful in protection. To find out more go to
friendslife.co.uk/protection
For advisers only. Not for use with customers. Friends Provident Holdings (UK) Plc is the parent company of all the companies in the Friends Life group. This group includes Friends Life Services Limited, which has approved this advertisement, and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Friends Life is a business name of companies in the Friends Life group of companies.
www.friendslife.com
C50074 Mort Introducer
strip_29x180.indd 2 mortgage introducer AUGUST 2011 17 21/04/2011 16:15
illness cover and 83% of income protection.
21% would cut back on critical illness cover and 20% on life cover if they had to, compared to just 15% who would cut back on their broadband access. and, despite the low take-up of some protection products, 54% of people say they review their finances once or twice a year. a quarter (23%) said they could not afford life insurance and 26% that they could not afford ci cover.
News in brief • Aviva has reduced the turnaround time for medi- cal evidence assessments with 95% of underwriting decisions now made within eight hours and all within 24 hours • The BGL group, which includes comparethemarket. com, has launched a new life product launched in con- junction with Ageas Protect • Zurich UK Life chief ex- ecutive Michael Brennan is leaving the business at the end of August
• Former Munich Re head of marketing Andy Milburn has joined Ageas Protect as head of marketing
• Engage Mutual has enhanced its Guaranteed 50 Plus Life Cover for the intermediary market • Friends Life has produced two new guides to help ad- visers to make the best use of social media • The FSA has banned two insurance brokers, An- drew Porter and Alexander Brincat, from working in the financial services industry and has also withdrawn the permissions of Brincat’s insurance firm Wise Owl Services Limited • The ABI is to fund a new insurance fraud police unit • Research from Aviva claims that grandparents provide £33bn of free child- care a year to their offspring
of those that have cover, 86% were aware of critical
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