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If life is for living, then what could be a better outcome than giving clients an extra five years of healthy life.
In recent years we’ve seen the way people live and work change dramatically, while health trends are impacting longevity and leading to a rise in chronic, and in many cases preventable diseases.
As a population we’re increasingly more aware of lifestyle risks and want to get healthier but often our behavioural biases mean we find it hard to make changes we know could benefit us in the future.
Our industry meanwhile plays a crucial role in helping to improve people’s financial and health resilience, but despite the obvious need for protection, most people aren’t automatically compelled to take out cover.
The adage that protection is sold not bought remains true.
Rethinking protection
With the shift away many of the traditional moments that would have triggered a protection conversation – buying a house, getting married, starting a family and so on – we’ve had to find new ways of reaching and engaging with consumers.
Traditionally, the sale of protection products has mostly focused on offering people peace of mind; in exchange for a monthly premium today, clients can be safe in the knowledge that if something happens tomorrow, they’ll be covered.
The trouble is our cognitive biases mean that many people are unconvinced by this message.
Those traditional arguments often conflict with people’s optimism bias and belief that ‘it won’t happen to them’.
Furthermore, why should financial protection only serve as compensation for serious illness or untimely death anyway?
While protecting clients from financial hardship due to the unforeseen is at the heart of what our industry does, I believe the challenges we face as a country call for an entire rethink of the role protection can play in people’s lives.
In a shifting protection landscape, it is no longer enough for insurance to simply provide cover for when things go catastrophically wrong.
Unlocking real value
At Vitality, we’ve always been guided by a powerful core purpose to not just protect your clients but enhance their lives and make them healthier too.
Today’s consumers demand more from their plan and this brings with it additional opportunities for client engagement.
This means Vitality’s unique approach is resonating more and we’re seeing remarkable results among advisers and our members.
This is best reflected in the Vitality Programme, which inverts the traditional model of insurance by offering upfront, tangible value – alongside long-term protection – and harnesses the power of behaviour change and healthy habits.
In fact, we’re so confident in our ability to improve a clients’ lives for the better – and the data underpinning it – it is the headline message of our eye-catching life insurance TV advert many of you will have seen.
With this comes the power to not just protect people’s lives, but to actively help them lead healthier, more active lifestyles with an insurance product they can enjoy every day which, in turn, can reduce the chances of them falling ill and even improve their life expectancy – by up to five years.
All of this offers a compelling opportunity to reframe conversations with clients.
What other protection product allows you to put an emphasis on the positive and offer the prospect of more life, alongside market-leading insurance that’s there for them when things go wrong too? Life is also about living after all.
Watch: Vitality Life insurance could help you live longer
