"I think there’s always been, what I believe is, a misconception that protection conversations are tricky. Any campaign that supports those conversations is always going to be powerful."
- Hilary Banks, Sales Director at Guardian Financial Services
Next month, teams of six from across the industry will gather to compete at Inside Track - the ultimate team-based gameshow experience designed to pit the very best in protection against one another; who doesn’t enjoy some friendly rivalry?!
To find out more about Inside Track 2025 (which offers CPD hours), follow the link here
For 2025, Inside Track will be supported by Guardian Financial Services (Guardian) as Sponsor of its ‘Definitions’ round. I spoke with Hilary Banks, Sales Director at Guardian, about why she’s supporting this initiative.
“We’re delighted to support Protection Reporter’s inaugural Inside Track. We’re always looking for new ways to engage with advisers so anything that’s helping introduce protection conversations that might otherwise have felt difficult is great,” she said.
“What a fun way to engage with our adviser community whilst getting a little competitive, bringing something completely new to our events calendar.”
The Definitions round will feature questions written by Alan Lakey (CIExpert), Adam Higgs (St James’s Place), Nick Telfer (Vitality), Helen Croft (SCOR), and Branko Bjelobaba.
Hilary explained that this round was a “perfect fit” for Guardian “as our crystal-clear Critical Illness (CI) definitions are one of the product features we’re best known for. Advisers tell us how much their customers value the simplicity.”
Championing education, Inside Track will also support the ongoing work of the charity-led campaign 7Families, fundraising £10,000 for upcoming awareness initiatives. 7Families ran between 2014-16 and followed the lives of seven families who’d suffered an income shock but didn’t have Income Protection (IP).
Equally funded by insurers across the industry, 7Families provided payments to these families – replicating what they would have received if they had IP in place. Throughout this campaign, the families were filmed regularly to document the impact of the payments & added-value services provided – 7Families celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2024.
Hilary noted that 7Families was “huge at the time and had such a positive impact on the protection market. It raised massive amounts of awareness and understanding of the financial and emotional challenges faced by those out of work due to ill-health or injury.”
“I think there’s always been, what I believe is, a misconception that protection conversations are tricky. Any campaign that supports those conversations is always going to be powerful.”
She believes 7Families gave advisers confidence; “Real-life stories help to remove some of those stigmas linked to protection conversations. This campaign has influenced insurers to develop more customer-centric products and services, we’re more focused than ever on creating policies that are accessible and understandable. Of course, the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Duty will have played a pivotal role in that, but I think the impact of seeing real people plays its role.”
When discussing the importance of case studies, Hilary referenced CIExpert’s ‘Critical Thinking’ Report which examined consumer ignorance in the face of CI. This report found a “significant lack of understanding and awareness of CI amongst consumers” to such an extent that 17% of those surveyed believed a claim payout could only be used to pay off a mortgage.
“Providing easy to understand and jargon-free information is really important.”
She said: “There’s also a case for transparency; when consumers understand how products work and they can see real-world examples of the benefits provided, they’re far more likely to trust and engage with insurers.”
“There are loads of opportunities with all the great work that advisers are doing on social media platforms to reach people, and providers need to continue supporting that by documenting real-life stories that advisers can use to educate consumers,” Hilary concluded.
