LV= explored the development of a lifestyle protection product which would evolve with a customer’s life, according to its former group executive managing director for protection Iain Clark.
Speaking at the Protection Review conference, Clark revealed that while at LV= he had explored working with reinsurers to build a protection policy that grows with customer life stages.
Clark, who has been chief commercial officer at Direct Life and Pension Services since November 2021, was at LV= for four years from July 2011 to August 2015.
As part of his appearance, Clark urged the industry to follow-up his attempts and develop products which are more friendly for customer’s and meet their life stage needs.
“So you, first of all if you’re single you might need critical illness, income protection so that’s the first thing that you should have,” Clark said.
“Then the second thing is you might have a family so you might want some life assurance. Then as you have two, three kids potentially maybe you want some more life assurance as well.”
Clark explained the sector needs a model which works with customers as they develop as individuals and into parenthood.
“That way people will probably buy into it a little bit more and think ‘I actually need some protection – can I have some for £500 please? Or can I have a little bit more critical illness please?'” he said.
“[And that will be] Absolutely fine. Have you got anything else wrong with you since we last spoke? Tick this list.
“We’ll go to the reinsurers or we’ll go to the underwriters and we’ll find out if that’s going to cost you anymore what the situation’s going to be. It’s an evolutionary product, it works with you, but the problem is we’ve got static products that don’t actually develop with people.
“We just say, ‘Well you’ve got that, you need this.’ The problem we do have is we don’t actually ask those questions and go and talk to people anyway.
“I think that’s the reason because we haven’t got products that adapt to people, we’ve got products that are there for people and people have got to come and ask for it.”
After leaving LV= Clark moved to British Friendly for almost four years, including as CEO for two and a half years, before joining OneFamily and then Direct Life.