Next year should see a greater focus on educating advisers and customers about how protection insurance can help them, Legal & General and Zurich have said.
The insurers believe it is time to highlight the role advisers play in holding vital conversations with clients about the importance of taking out protection cover as the NHS is put under continued strain.
And after a dip in sales late in 2021, it was noted tighter personal finances with higher inflation could also prove tricky conditions for customers which insurers would need to navigate.
Speaking to Health & Protection about the company’s priorities for 2022, Robert Betts, market development manager at Legal & General, said the firm was seeking to build on its adviser education.
“Advisers are absolutely indispensable to the market, so we will be focussing on providing the right training and support to make sure we’re giving them the best tools to shape their conversations with clients, helping to broaden out the discussions to include the need for income, mortgage, wealth and business protection too,” he said.
“We will be encouraging advisers to think about the whole lifecycle of a client, starting with protecting income, followed by dealing with the financial and emotional shock of critical illness and finally considering how to address debt upon death too.
“As an industry, we need to make it easy and pain-free for both intermediaries and customers to access the products they need if we are going to help as many people and businesses as possible weather the storm of the pandemic.”
Engaging consumers
Meanwhile, Zurich said it would be emphasising contact and engagement with consumers to help them understand the risks they need to protect against and the support they already have.
Louise Colley, director of retail protection at Zurich, (pictured) told Health & Protection that with the NHS under continued strain leaving more people unable to access the diagnosis and treatment that they need, the firm will be stressing the importance of taking out cover.
“We’ll be looking to remind people of the cover they have and the benefits that come with it – such as access to free counselling and rehabilitation for those with income protection,” she said.
Colley also queried how market activity would respond after a dip to end the year.
“The market was most certainly subdued in H2 after the boost to the housing sector following the stamp duty holiday that ran through to June this year,” she said.
“It will be interesting to see how non-mortgage related sales increase and mortgage-related sales bounce back. Current inflationary pressures will present further challenges as customers’ finances are squeezed.
“Unfortunately, this often results in people looking to cut expenditure, and so as an industry, we will need to further engage customers and remind them of how critical it is to have cover in place as a financial safety net.”