Business protection and private medical insurance (PMI) are too important not to write or refer.
This was one of the key messages of this morning’s session on the final day of Business Protection Focus Week.
Extolling the virtues of combining these benefits, panellist Dave Butler, market development manager at Legal & General, explained that all areas of business protection can be supported by key person insurance and PMI working in tandem.
“If we consider the loss of a key person, can we have a quicker diagnosis? A quicker diagnosis with a PMI product means that people might be able to get onto a treatment pathway quicker, return to work. There’s less of an impact.
“But some people will never be able to work,” Butler continued. “Some people will take, even with the support of PMI, significant periods of time off.
“Having that cash injection that the protection provides means they work well together.”
Quicker claims
Being able to get a diagnosis can speed up protection claims, Butler added, while key protection insurance can maintain investor confidence in a business.
“When it comes to what’s in a business owner’s mind, cashflow keeps them awake at night, but also staffing issues,” Butler continued. “Can you attract and retain the right staff and make sure they are as productive as possible?
“We can give PMI as a benefit, but also that prevention and engagement keeps them healthy. But things like relevant life for small businesses or group risk products helps attract and retain staff by giving them valuable benefits.”
Write or refer
In the subsequent question and answer session, when panellists were asked whether they would advocate signposting between adviser firms, Butler’s response was unequivocal.
“If you can have good conversations with your clients, but you’re not an expert or you don’t want to fulfil that yourself, you have so many options,” he said.
“You can make your own referrals to people in your business or your local adviser community or there are expert partners available in the market place that can do this for you.
“There will be commercial arrangements for these things to be set up.
“What we don’t want to do is for people to walk past this and leave clients vulnerable because they haven’t got this protection or PMI in place.
“I recognise the need, but I’m too busy or I’d rather pass it to an expert. Build those relationships. Signpost people and refer them. If you’re not going to write it, refer it.”
Support is there
Fellow panellist Brian Morgan, head of health specialists at Vitality, added that the support is there.
“In terms of signposting we’ve got the Vitality Academy. We’ve got the business consultants,” Morgan said.
“We can help you. This isn’t just a one-off. This is just the start of the journey and if you commit to us, we’ll commit to you.
“We do Webex sessions. We do training sessions. There’s lots of things we can do to make sure you’re an expert and you’re happy to discuss private medical insurance with your clients.”