The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has published Building a safety net: A guide to income protection.
The free guide provides an overview of individual and group income protection (IP) products and support by identifying the need for this cover, the types of product available and how to create a return-to-work plan.
It also includes key explainations on how IP interacts with universal credit and state benefits. Other subjects include:
- How to underwrite income protection
- How to protect mortgage borrowers and renters
- How individual income protection works and associated costs
- The range of group risk and services on offer
- The benefits of group risk protection
- The suitability of business protection and rental income protection
- Starting protection conversations
This guide was written in collaboration with the professionalism workstream of the Access to Insurance Working Group, alongside more than a dozen experts in the protection sector.
Commenting on the publication of the guide, Ron Wheatcroft, technical manager at Swiss Re, described it as “exactly the sort of material we need to raise awareness and professionalism in our sector”.
“The guide is comprehensive, explaining both individual and workplace policies and how they are written.
“Importantly though, it identifies the wide-ranging benefits offered as part of the product outside of meeting someone’s financial needs, for example supporting people back to work when they are able to do so.”
Wheatcroft noted that the government’s recent response to the Health Is Everyone’s Business consultation indicated it will work with insurers and other experts to develop a consensus statement on workplace health.
“That work will grow much-needed awareness of the link between good work and good health and, importantly, it will signpost employers to sources of support, including to income protection,” he added.
Wheatcroft added that while Swiss Re’s Term & Health Watch report, published earlier this year, showed a 9.5% drop in new individual income protection policy sales in 2020, he does not think the bubble has burst for IP policy sales following the bumper increases of 2018 and 2019.
“Four of the top five providers, measured by the number of new sales in 2020, wrote more new business in 2020, an increase taking all of their business into account, of 18.1%. With this in mind, the long-term prognosis for the product remains good.”