FR: How do you see technology changing the way the insurance sector operates?
More and more, technology is giving us better ways to interact with our customers. We’ve already started down the road of engaging with clients, post sale, to encourage them to lead a healthier lifestyle through our Vitality programme. This is gaining huge momentum and our partnerships with third party companies and technologies (Fitbug, Nike, Polar to name a few) means that people can easily demonstrate their day to day activities.
This leads to healthier, happier customers who have a lower propensity to cancel their policy due to a perceived lack of value further down the line, so it’s a virtuous circle. We aim to continue evolving this aspect of our business and technology will play a key role.
FR: Do you think we will see more CIC products tailored to the severity of conditions?
Undoubtedly. Since we launched Serious Illness Cover, an entirely severity based plan, back in 2008, every major CIC provider has remodelled their plan to include some element of partial payment to its structure, so the journey towards that inevitable destination has already begun.
The key factors are that it makes sense to joe public; after all, it’s how all their other insurance products behave and it matches up with advances in medicine and disease management – more people are being diagnosed with conditions such as cancer, but the prognosis for those people is far better than in previous years. We’re catching illness earlier and treating them better, so it’s entirely logical to provide cover with can pay out sooner and allow multiple claims.
FR: Research has recently shown many fail to upgrade their life insurance cover when taking out a larger mortgage – what steps should advisers take to help combat this problem?
It’s a well established, if disappointing fact that when mortgage sales do well, Protection sales suffer. We put this down to advisers being busy and not having the requisite time to fully discuss their customers’ needs fully. Similarly, when existing clients return to amend their mortgages, Protection can be neglected under the pressure to facilitate the loan.
The only way to combat this is for us, as providers, to continue to push the Protection messages to those advisers: it’s right for the client, it’s good business sense and it’s morally the correct thing to do.
There remains on onus on the industry to make the Protection process simpler and easier to navigate, too. So that fewer advisers are put off by the additional admin requirements selling Protection can lead to.
FR: If you weren’t in the financial services industry, what would you be doing?
Something to do with sports. I’ve never played any of them well enough to dream of leading the line at Old Trafford (although, recently...) or sinking the winning putt for Team Europe, so perhaps the cushy life of the co-commentator. Being flown around the globe, given front row seats and asked only to point out the stark, staring obvious seems a pretty good life to me. If Andy Townsend can do it, I’m confident I wouldn’t struggle.
