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With the cost-of-living crisis showing no signs of abating and more people on a tighter budget than usual, advisers and their clients will be looking for ways of making protection cover more affordable.
Despite the cost challenges people are facing, poor financial resilience and rising rates of financial vulnerability mean that protection insurance is more important than ever.
Alongside numerous policy variables, unique product options like Vitality’s Optimiser can be a great way of making protection cover more affordable, whilst helping to unlock more immediate value for clients.
Catering to different client budgets
There’s now a range of protection products on the market to suit different budgets, allowing advisers to tailor the right solution for their individual client needs.
Take Vitality’s Serious Illness Cover for example, available as three distinct products, that offer comprehensive cover options at different price points.
The same is true of Income Protection, arguably one of the most important product recommendations in the current environment. Alongside more comprehensive full-term cover, short-term benefit payment periods offer a lower cost alternative if cost is an issue.
Adjusting plan variables
Plan variables like term, finishing age, sum-assured, monthly benefit and deferral period (in the case of income protection) can also be adjusted to suit different client budgets.
Increasing the deferral period on an income protection plan for example can help to reduce the cost and although the client may have to wait a little longer to receive their benefit, that’s preferrable to having no cover at all.
With protection plans also offering more Guaranteed Increase Options, if clients do have to cut-back on cover when finances are tight, they’ll have the flexibility to increase cover in future if needed.
Helping clients to immediately save money
Unique plan options like Optimiser can be a great way of giving clients an upfront discount on their insurance. Optimiser gives clients access to our best available premium and the ability to pay up to 40% less for their protection cover.
Our members benefited from £44m in lower premiums during 2021 at an average of £112 per plan.
This gives advisers the opportunity to place the most comprehensive cover and where necessary multiple benefits across Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection, at a more affordable price.
Delivering more immediate, tangible value
Because Optimiser can give clients full access to the Vitality Programme alongside their insurance plan, they get even more opportunities for immediate and tangible value.
In 2021 alone, we helped our members understand their health better through almost 380,000 health assessments; they also enjoyed more than 1.7m gym sessions through our gym partners; received 60,000 discounted activity trackers and 4.1m hand crafted Caffé Nero beverages.
‘Making protection more affordable during the cost-of-living crisis’
Find out how your clients can get up to two months’ premiums back with new qualifying health or life plans: https://adviser.vitality.co.uk/campaigns/summer-2023/