Insurers need to up their game in providing better access to annual benefit statements and added value services.
This is according to panellists assembled for the final day of the Income Protection Task Force’s Income Protection Awareness Week.
While the panel reached consensus that regular reviews are a key part of the process when dealing with income protection clients, they also acknowledged that some insurers do not provide annual benefit statements.
Vital connection
“I think they’re vital,” Scott Taylor-Barr, principal adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management, (pictured second from left) told the online audience. “It’s that connection so that every year the client is receiving a document that reminds them this is what you’ve got.
“That direct debit on your bank account that just says whatever – this is what it’s giving you. And it’s the insurer’s chance to underscore that direct debit as important.
“I think the ones that don’t do annual statement really do miss that opportunity to say, look what we’re giving you for that £20, £30, £40 a month. I I think it’s vital.”
Making it personal
For Naomi Greatorex, owner of Heath Protection Solutions (pictured third from left), the different approaches taken by insurers have meant review letters are not necessarily picked up on.
“What we do instead is we reissue the advice letter that I sent so when I’m reviewing a client I reattach the original advice letter,” Greatorex revealed explaining her approach.
“I reattach the original terms as well because in the advice letter there’s the getting to know your customer paragraph, where you say you needed this because of this, this and this and so it’s really a good way of saying this is what we discussed.
“This is what I wrote to you and you agreed we discussed. Have you had any of the following? Have you had a baby? Moved house? All of those things.
“If we’re doing the correspondence ourselves, then we’re making it personal.”
Too clunky
Emma Astley, owner of Cover My Bubble (pictured fourth from left), maintained some of insurers’ statements are “too clunky”.
“All they do is look at it and put it behind the kettle,” Astley continued. “That’s why we send out our own easy to see, quite visual statement so that when a client does receive it, they know what they’re covered for, they know how much it is and that reminds them of everything.
“And they know they are covered and then we have additional letters explaining don’t forget about your added benefit and if you need us, any changes, come back to us.”
Make it easier to download
Touching on added-value services in a subsequent debate, Astley called on insurers to improve access.
“They could make it easier to download an app. They’re some insurers where it’s so easy to use, it’s fantastic and it’s one app.
“So we can try and get that easy to use especially for people who aren’t techy like myself. If they could do that, that would be great.”
