The Protection Distributors Group (PDG) highlighted the growth in income protection (IP) sales as one of the most important developments in the protection market during the last 10 years.
At an event marking this milestone, Emma Thomson, who was the PDG’s chairwoman at launch and who has since been reappointed to the role, singled out the growth in IP sales as a key achievement and praised the wider industry for this achievement.
“Income protection sales have more than doubled since the PDG was first founded, which is great,” Thomson said.
“That is testament to the hard work of all of us in the room helping to make products accessible, helping to engage more customers, advisers having those conversations and insurers delivering better information to advisers about why income protection is so important.”
She gave particular recognition to the Income Protection Task Force (IPTF) for all the work they have done as well.
Insurer departures and entries
However, Thomson added the significant fluctuations in insurers operating in the market was a significant trend over the decade.
Aegon, AIG Life and HSBC Life have all closed to new business, while Canada Life exited the individual market but retained a presence in the group market.
“We have lost a few brands in that time as well,” Thomson continued.
“We were sad to see Aegon go from individual protection, [with] Canada Life, AIG Life and HSBC Life [leaving] more recently.
“But we have also gained a few. We’ve got Guardian in the room and we’ve also seen brands that have increased their focus on protection as well, such as National Friendly.
“It’s really great we’ve also got OneFamily and Beagle Street as well. They’ve been around a long time, but in terms of the distribution space, relaunching is really great.
“Those are the positive things. We’ve seen some go. We’ve seen some come.
“And who knows what the next few years will bring in terms of the insurers we’ve got to choose from and consumer choice.”
