"Sourcing comprehensive research is of paramount importance to advisers so being able to utilise CIExpert’s expertise with the most important protection product of all is fabulous news."
- Roy McLoughlin, director at Cavendish Ware
In a major strategic move, CIExpert has created an area within its policy information hub for Income Protection (IP) products. Through its Insight Zone, CIExpert will now provide advisers with easy access to key information on all aspects of IP policies. Its digital dashboard design offers a ‘birds-eye’ view of all the aspects in a user-friendly format, while its interactive tools allow advisers to explore policy features and improve their knowledge of the market.
CIExpert has also developed a unique Maximum Benefit Tool to enable advisers to visually compare the levels of coverage available between plans and more easily illustrate the options for their clients.
Commenting on this evolution, Alan Lakey, director at CIExpert, has said:
“For a few years now we have been having regular requests from adviser firms across the industry to add income protection to our services. Recently, following the success of the Insight Zone, we have also seen increased demand from insurers to illustrate the merits of their income protection policies and so when Guardian approached us as part of their product launch we decided to bring forward our plans.
“Income protection products have their own set of challenges and complexities and face a different set of barriers for adviser and client adoption. We have taken this first step to aid advisers in this area by creating a new set of interactive tools and the insights available will serve those advisers already engaged with IP. However, we also aim to invest more development into this area, to simplify the adviser journey and support the market growth of these important products.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to support Guardian’s entry into the market as a founding member of our new Income Protection Insight Zone. As with the CIC Insight Zone, we have worked with Guardian to compliment the Insight Zone by incorporating their own income protection sales support tools within the same centralised policy information hub. Their support enables us to develop and maintain this service for CIExpert’s existing users at no additional cost.”
In support, Andrew Wibberley, co-chair of the Income Protection Taskforce, has said:
“The IPTF are delighted to see CIExpert introduce income protection to their service. CIExpert has built a reputation over the last 10 years from making the process of assessing quality and reviewing critical illness policies a simpler one by cutting through the complexity and enabling advisers to clearly articulate the differences between policies. Applying this same focus to Income Protection should give advisers more confidence to understand and explain differences, further accelerating growth in the market and resulting in more people protecting their incomes.”
Roy McLoughlin, director at Cavendish Ware, added:
“The news that we’ll now be able to select income protection utilising CIExpert’s expertise will be welcomed with open arms by many across the industry. If CIExpert apply the same insightful approach they have employed to critical illness it will clearly be a great asset for advisers.
“Not only is it important for advisers but our experience is that clients like to understand the rationale for policy selection and that research tools are an important element in gaining their understanding and engagement. There is still a market challenge to get more advisers talking to their clients about income protection and a research tool like this has an incredibly important training aspect for firms getting their advisors and paraplanners to understand and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each company’s plans.”
