News Review: General Insurance


Downton adverts should help advisers to sell


by Gary Little, head of key accounts, Assurant Intermediary


i cannot help thinking that all the fuss over aviva’s tV advertising campaign during downton abbey almost made a crisis out of a drama. Following the airing of the


first episode of series two back in September, viewers complained about the insurer’s sponsorship and series of tV ads featuring a motorcyclist injured in an accident. the ads prompted an outcry on social networking site twitter, with viewers expressing outrage at the depressing nature of the ads and promising never to buy aviva products.


Shock tactics work regardless of your own personal view as to whether the enjoyment of a tV drama is ruined or not by ads aired around it, aviva should be applauded for drawing attention to how the lives of everyday people can suddenly take a dramatic turn. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the ads successfully demonstrate the value of insurance protection and the positive impact it can have on an ordinary person when a drama turns into a crisis. the sad truth is that accidents do happen, people do fall sick and the risk of redundancy hangs over the head of many people. the latest unemployment


figures released by the office for national Statistics revealed that uK unemployment rose


by 114,000 between June and august to 2.57m, a 17-year high according to official figures. the government’s alternative measure for unemployment - the claimant count - rose to 1.6m in September.


Unprotected against this backdrop, the take-up of insurance protection is at perilously low levels. anecdotally, sales of protection products have generally remained quite flat over recent years. data released by the Financial Services authority in august in its annual product sales data report reveals that the total number of long term pure protection products sold fell by 1% in 2010/11.


Protection gap We commissioned consensus to undertake some research for us back in march this year which revealed that only 10% of the population has mPPi and just 5% has income protection. Perhaps more alarming was that 40% of respondents said that if they were unable to work due to an accident, sickness or unemployment, they would rely on government benefits to support them. the government does


provide a range of support mechanisms such as job seekers allowance or income support to offer consumers some financial assistance should their income stop, and of course there are specific measures aimed at alleviating mortgage pressure on struggling households. However,


eligibility 22 mortgage introducer NOVEMBER 2011


depends on a number of circumstances. the Support for mortgage


interest scheme provides a fall back for homeowners who don’t have an alternative financial contingency plan such as savings or insurance. However, it only covers the mortgage interest payments, not the repayment of the overall loan, and the support only starts after 13 weeks subject to a range of criteria. the national audit office reported in may that the mortgage rescue Scheme has only helped 2,600 households avoid repo- ssession since its launch in 2009 - but it originally expected to help 6,000 households. clients generally don’t


want to think about protection when they’re buying their home and it can be hard to get them to address the harsh realities of life. intermediaries, however,


have a responsibility to ensure their clients are prepared for any eventuality including accident, sickness and unemployment. this includes making sure that they fully understand what level of support the state will provide so that they can make the right decision about what level of private cover they might need.


A leaf out of Downton if you find it hard to steer the conversation in the right direction, do what aviva has done and use real life situations from your client base (masking true identities of course!) to make the products you’re discussing more tangible - and use a variety of scenarios to cover the range of options available. these can help illustrate the benefits of the different protection products and help overcome the ‘it won’t happen to me’ objection.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68