"Alarmingly, some abusers even use their status as a beneficiary to reinforce their treats to kill, leaving victim-survivors living in fear for their lives."
- Lauren Garrett, senior financial services manager at SEA
Since November 2024, CIExpert’s ‘single is best’ campaign - encouraging networks to stop forcing advisers to justify selling single plans over joint life - has secured support from over 100 firms, and over 230 individuals.
CIExpert believes joint life first event protection plans are “largely obsolete in today’s world, delivering inferior consumer outcomes and lower levels of fair value. Consumer Duty-based compliance processes should default to recommending two single plans for couples and advisers should be required to justify any recommendation of joint policies.”
READ MORE: CIExpert asks why advisers are forced to justify selling single plans over joint life to couples
To reinforce this campaign, CIExpert established its Critical Thinking Ambassadors Programme. “These industry leaders – representing Life Insurance, Critical Illness (CI), and Income Protection (IP) providers – will drive awareness, education, and innovation across the industry,” it said.
READ MORE: CIExpert launch Critical Thinking Ambassadors Programme
“This movement, rooted in our 2024 inaugural ‘Critical Thinking’ Report, has not only illuminated key consumer and adviser insights, but has also driven tangible change.
“We are now seeing this reflected in our pledge support and, more importantly, in the evolving behaviours of firms. This milestone underscores the industry’s increasing commitment to more client-focused protection strategies,” explained Alan Lakey, director at CIExpert.
CIExpert’s ‘single is best’ campaign has gained support from Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA), which is the UK’s only charity dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse to better protect those at risk.
“For too long, domestic abusers have misused joint life policies as tools for economic abuse, both during relationships abuse, both during relationships and long after separation. Perpetrators exploit these policies by withholding their consent to end them, trapping victim-survivors into unwanted financial ties for many years after separation.
“Alarmingly, some abusers even use their status as a beneficiary to reinforce their treats to kill, leaving victim-survivors living in fear for their lives,” stressed Lauren Garrett, senior financial services manager at SEA.
She said: “That’s why we are calling on the insurance industry to make single life policies, at the same price per person as joint policies, the default. We’re also urging the Government to consider legislative reforms to enable firms to separate or end joint policies in cases of economic abuse.
“We’re pleased that CIExpert has supported our calls with its ‘single is best’ campaign. We now want to work with the sector to help providers better identify and support customers experiencing economic abuse and prevent their products from being exploited.”
SEA’s ‘Life Insurance and Economic Abuse’ Report recommends single life policies become the default, but crucially, that these plans aren’t priced at a higher rate than joint life, ensuring victim-survivors aren’t financially penalised for choosing what may be the safer option.
Johnny Timpson OBE, ambassador for SEA, added: “While life policies represent an important financial protection for many people and their dependents, they can also be used as an opportunity for economic abuse, as well as coercive and controlling behaviour both during a relationship and long after separation.
“On behalf of SEA, I applaud and thank CIExpert for their industry leadership and pioneering the ‘single is best’ campaign. As seen from Swiss Re’s Term Watch data, it’s driving adviser policy and practice change by ensuring that protection policies in the UK are set up appropriately, with dual single rather than joint life policies as the default.”
