Concerns about affordability and uncertainty around the suitability and value of protection insurance rank among the key reasons putting people off from taking out cover.
This is according to early findings from the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries’ (AMI) 2026 Protection Viewpoint Study which reveals that the vast majority of consumers who have started the protection insurance buying process but did not go on to buy haven’t ruled it out for good.
Among the different reasons people gave for not buying protection by those that dropped out, the vast majority – between 79% and 95% – said something could have changed their decision and made them more likely to go ahead with cover, according to the study of 3,000 UK consumers.
Those polled were asked a follow-on question for each response exploring what would make them more likely to take cover.
From this, the report identifies that the majority of consumers said something could have changed their decision and made them more likely to go ahead with cover – ranging from 79% to 95%.
The top five reasons consumers gave for dropping out of the protection journey were cost of affordability concerns – cited by 24% of those polled, uncertainty about the need or value of cover (18%), cover not meeting needs (14%), trust or confidence concerns (13%), and changed circumstances of timing (11%).
These early insights have been released two weeks after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published the final report of its pure protection market study, which found that 58% of UK adults have no protection – and 59% of that group have never even considered it. AMI has been named by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the trade body to lead industry efforts to strengthen adviser engagement with protection, citing insights from the annual Protection Viewpoint research as an appropriate platform to co-ordinate practical support for advisers across the wider sector and different intermediary models.
The Protection Viewpoint report has been developed in partnership with Legal & General, The Exeter and Vitality, and will examine protection from three angles: how consumers are changing, how protection propositions and marketing needs to evolve, and the future of advice.
This year’s study will look at how the consumer landscape is changing, what’s really shaping the protection journey, and provide practical takeaways to help the industry better address the protection gap.
Stephanie Charman, chief executive of AMI, (pictured) said: “The FCA’s final report has put a clear marker down: now is the time for the industry to move from talking about the protection gap to actively working to close it. The Viewpoint study gives us the evidence and insights, and now AMI has the mandate to put it to work with advisers.
“What our research tells us, is that the protection journey is not linear. Consumers are not closing the door on it, but the industry isn’t always finding the moment to open it. Cost, confidence, understanding, and timing are all barriers that can be addressed, not fixed points that rule people out for good.
“This year’s report will focus the insights through three pillars: consumer, proposition and the advice model – offering practical, evidence-led support that help the industry understand the moments, conversations and approaches that can turn interest in protection into action. We hope the industry leans in to join us to take action to close the protection gap.”
