CIExpert has appointed Steven Wanstall as a consultant to help develop a new income protection comparison facility.
Alan Lakey, director at the critical illness comparison service (pictured), told Health & Protection that Wanstall, a former strategic account manager at OneFamily and head of sales at British Friendly, has joined CIExpert as it seeks to develop an income protection comparison facility for advisers and become a “one-stop” for protection comparison.
Enabling advisers to better understand IP
“With income protection you can’t do a comparison like you could do with a critical illness plan due to the nature of the product, Lakey explained.
“But we do want to have a system that allows advisers to better understand and compare the income protection plans out there.
“Steve, who used to be the national sales manager at British Friendly many, many years back, is perfect for that position.”
One-stop shop for protection
Lakey said Wanstall will be helping to develop the system alongside propositions and distribution director, Paul Roberts, who will be meeting with income protection providers to ensure all information on record is correct.
“That’s an important aspect of what we do – we don’t just say, ‘this is what it is,'” Lakey continued, “We do make sure that the companies agree that that’s what it is which is a failsafe for us to make sure we don’t get things wrong obviously.
“What we want is for advisers to consider us as a one-stop shop for protection.”
Finding exact requirements
Lakey maintained income protection is a complex subject so CIExpert’s aim is to create a system which enables advisers to log in, input exactly what they are looking for and put down their requirements so that it brings up a shortlist of the various plans that will meet their needs.
“And that of course becomes very complex once you’re dealing with doctors and dentists and so forth,” Lakey continued.
“So we’ve got to have a system that can cater for the changes and the subtle differences there may be between the various plans.
“For example, not every plan runs to age 70. Not every plan will pay you 60% of income. Not every plan will allow you to have own occupation.”
Ancillary services
While Lakey did not commit to a timeframe as to when the facility will be up and running, he did add that it would detail the various plans’ ancillary services.
“With income protection they don’t change in that way and the definition is the definition,” he said.
“But what they do change, and they do it fairly frequently over the last year or so, is some of the smaller ancillary bits such as the added health services we’ve seen with British Friendly and The Exeter and so forth.
“And then you’ll get a company that says, well, we’re increasing our maximum age from 68 to 70.
“We want something that’s going to reflect what’s going on and allow somebody to choose.”
