CIExpert’s Single Is Best campaign is making inroads with most consumers saying single policies offer better overall protection and value when advisers clearly outline the benefits, according to the firm’s Critical Thinking 2026 report.
The campaign, launched in November 2024, challenges compliance guidelines, urging a shift in industry standards to ensure that recommendations for joint life first event plans are thoroughly justified rather than defaulted to.
When couples are first asked which type of critical illness cover provides the best protection, joint cover is the instinctive choice.
Among those expressing a view, 68% assumed it offered better protection for a couple, despite only 12% saying they understood the difference.
However, after a simple explanation of these aspects, and learning that two single policies typically cost only slightly more while providing separate cover for each person, 51% said single policies offered better overall protection and value.
Almost three in ten advisers (29%) claimed the Single Is Best campaign had changed how they recommended critical illness cover (CIC), either in some cases (14%) or routinely (11%), with additional influence extending beyond individual advice into colleague discussions and internal processes.
Very few advisers actively disagreed with the principle of recommending single policies (1%).
However, a notable minority did report feeling constrained by compliance considerations.
But the findings also pointed that further progress can be made as a quarter of advisers (27%) were previously unaware of the campaign, while awareness of related research into economic abuse linked to joint financial arrangements remained extremely low (3%).
