"People think financial planning is something that can be ignored. But reality tells a very different story."
- Alan Lakey, Director at CIExpert
Next week, 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 CIExpert as Sponsor of its ‘Technology’ round. I spoke with Alan Lakey, Paul Roberts & Natalie Mayne about why they’re supporting this initiative.
CIExpert recognises Inside Track as a platform that can offer advisers an “educational experience rather than just hard fact.”
“It’s about time the protection events calendar had something new […] to have an event that’s fun but promotes education and gets advisers engaged,” said Natalie, “we’re delighted to be involved in something so exciting and innovative.”
Paul highlighted the importance of Inside Track’s fresh approach to education, especially for younger advisers; “There’s a tremendous amount of history that most advisers don’t know about when it comes to comprehensive legal statutes and regulation.”
“We’re champions of education, so it’s fitting for us to be involved.”
The Technology round will feature questions written by Setul Mehta (SM Advice), James Lovett (Lovethorn), Katie Crook-Davies (t+1), Neil McCarthy (PDG), and Emma Vaughan (Simplybiz).
Natalie noted that since adviser education on technology has become a “vital component for providing advice,” sponsoring this round was an obvious choice. Moreover, Alan highlighted that there is a “huge number of consumers (and a surprisingly high volume of advisers) that don’t seem to appreciate the financial impact of ill-health and premature death.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’ve got our Insight Zones for Critical Illness Cover (CIC), Life Insurance, and Income Protection (IP). We’ve got a condition database which explains each condition in simple terms, number of people likely to be affected, current claims percentages, and the differences between plans.”
“Adviser education on technology is now a vital component for providing advice.”
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 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.
“It was the first time that the bulk of the protection industry teamed up and acted cohesively to promote the woefully undersold but essential IP product.”
Natalie thought it was a “masterstroke” to fundraise for 7Families; “It’s got a lasting reputation in the industry, so it’s great to see it being revived.” Alan noted that the initiative showed “the human side of claimants and how regular income can allow families to live rather than simply survive.”
“People think financial planning is something that can be ignored. But reality tells a very different story.”
“I’ve been doing this job for forty-five years, so I’ve seen the impact that protection has on families when needed. I’ve seen families saved. I’ve seen people who would’ve been kicked out on the street, because they couldn’t afford the mortgage, being in a position to pay it off,” he added.
Paul agreed that 7Families brought out the “clear objective” that helping people live through traumatic life events (and the aftermath) is what protection products do.
