Beagle Street has formally launched into the advised protection market with its first life insurance and critical illness (CI) products.
The launch follows a pilot with a group of intermediaries, whose feedback helped shape the proposition and adviser journey ahead of full market entry, the insurer said.
It added this was the first step in a broader multi-year roadmap, with further developments planned to expand the proposition.
The first CI plan launched in what will be a multi-product range is an entry-level edition covering 23 conditions, designed to offer advisers and customers an accessible starting point.
Health & Protection obtained a fuller breakdown of the two launch products, which come with a range of additional services and are available through the Iress, IPipeline and UnderwriteMe sourcing systems.
These include Reframe Cancer, Square Health for 24/7 Virtual GP access, and RedArc support, alongside will writing and legal services.
Beagle Street, which has been only offering a direct to consumer proposition until now, was bought by mutual OneFamily in 2022.
In September 2024 the mutual announced the intention to launch into the intermediary market by the end of 2025.
Since then it has been building out it’s proposition and distribution process and making key hires for its team.
‘Advisers make such a difference’
Speaking at the launch event last night, OneFamily CEO Jim Islam emphasised that financial services should make a real difference to people’s lives and that protection was a vital part of that.
“I’ve always believed that financial resilience matters,” he said.
“Perhaps that’s because I have seen, both personally and professionally, the difference it can make when people have the right support in place, when life doesn’t go according to plan.
“When I look at the protection market, I see a huge opportunity.
“Millions of people across the UK still don’t have the protection they need – not because they don’t care; often because nobody has helped them navigate the choices.
“That’s where advisers make such a difference. You have the conversations, you build the trust, you help people make decisions that can have a lasting impact on their families.
“That’s why entering the intermediary market matters so much to us.”
Expanding on the mutual’s approach to the working with intermediary market, Islam continued: “When I look at what our production teams have built, I see care, I see attention to detail, and I see a determination to earn your trust, not simply ask for it.
“Tonight is an important milestone, but it isn’t the destination, it’s the start of a long-term partnership.
“We want to listen, we want to learn and we want to build something meaningful together.”
‘Most important conversations in protection’
The mutual said its proposition had been designed with advisers in mind and been built to be straightforward to understand, explain and adapt as clients’ needs change.
Also speaking at the launch event, OneFamily distribution director Holly Ewing (pictured) said Beagle Street began with a belief that protection should be simple.
“That it should be clear, that it should feel human and it should reach the people who need it, whoever they are, and whatever their life may look like,” she said.
“For 10 years we carried that belief to the direct market. We learned what works. We learned what people actually need when they are making one of the most important financial decisions of their lives.”
She continued: “The intermediary channel is where the most important conversations in protection happen, where trust is built carefully, recommendation by recommendation and relationship by relationship where the right network, the right platform, the right adviser can reach the people that no brand alone ever could.”
