The past 25 years have seen protection insurance evolve into a substantial specialist field that is inarguably a key cornerstone of any financial plan, according to LifeSearch chairman Tom Baigrie.
But Baigrie added that he believed the industry had come of age and was hopeful that the Consumer Duty would would remove any “remaining bits of foul practice”.
Delivering his address at the firm’s annual awards and 25th anniversary celebration, Baigrie noted he sold his first life policy 42 years ago when the word protection was never used to refer to life insurance.
He also reflected back to the firm’s 1998 launch and then the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), which combined with a global financial crisis, threw financial services business models into question.
In the lead-up to RDR a small group including LifeSearch were campaigning for life insurance to be seen as part of the general insurance world rather than the investment world.
Baigrie highlighted it was a “very close run thing” as firms like LifeSearch all very nearly became collateral damage in the regulator’s drive to abolish commission in financial services, but eventually decision makers realised abolishing commission meant abolishing intermediation, he added.
The meaning of agape
Turning to how the protection sector has evolved over the past 25 years, Baigrie pointed to it being a “healthy standalone” part of UK financial services that simply is not found in the same way elsewhere in Europe.
“It’s necessarily a small part because people rightly spend far less on the catastrophe insurance that we serve than they do on wealth accumulation,” Baigrie continued.
“But we are nonetheless a substantial specialist field and no-one argues that what we do is not the key cornerstone in any financial plan.
“As I may have told you before, the ancient Greeks have many different words for the different kinds of love we find in the world.
“And the one that most closely aligns with that warm feeling you get when you do something good for another person is agape.
“The love of the good you can do. All around our market I see more and more businesses being led by the love you can do.
“Of course our work is one where that should be a natural thing. It’s too long winded to make a marketing slogan but we do all share one goal – to protect people against the financial consequence of physical or mental catastrophe.
“Our job is to convince people to do the right thing by themselves and their families in case death or disability cause their financial distress and when it does to ensure they get the money and help they need to survive it.”
Eradicate remaining foul practice
In looking to the future, Baigrie concluded by saying that 25 years on he feels the protection market has come of age.
“My hope is that the FCA and Consumer Duty will clean out the remaining bits of foul practice,” Baigrie continued.
“And then we will be able to drive a new protection algorithm where universally better behaviour earns consumer trust and allows us all to protect far more Britons against the risks that some may fall foul of.
“You should all see protection as a noble calling. A business that does good. And on a personal level, you should love it and what you do every day and you should try and make it more true about you every day,” he added.