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The power of physical activity to improve lives is being realised by those people engaging with the Vitality Programme, VitalityLife CEO Justin Taurog explains.
The insurer has data from its 40 million connected lives around the world showing those members most engaging with the programme can increase their life expectancy by as much as five years.
The research results exceeded the insurer’s expectations, however Taurog believes it goes further than one simple raw number.
“It’s such a powerful message. The power we all have to be able to improve our lives and live longer, live healthier, live a better life,” he says.
“One of the biggest drivers we’ve seen is the power of physical activity in terms of improving people’s lives and yes it’s for physical life, but also for mental health and in many other aspects.
“It’s not about running a marathon or doing an Ironman triathlon; it’s about the frequency of just getting out there and just doing 5,000 or 7,000 steps in a day three or four times a week.”
Of course, those being most active are likely to see the greatest impact with people doing medium and high activity potentially reducing their mortality risk by 50%, according to the data.
“But the reality is that it’s ubiquitous, it’s across the age demographic,” Taurog continues.
“People can, just by making small changes to their lifestyle, improve their mortality significantly.
“What we’ve seen here is it’s never too late to start being physically active now, even if you start in your 50s just doing a bit of activity, you can make a marked difference, almost irrespective of what you’ve done before that.”
And it shows as those over-50s are among the most engaged cohort of Vitality Programme members.
£140m worth of value
There are other benefits to the Vitality insurance model for members as well.
Those actively engaged on the Optimiser plan collectively saved £40m in lower premiums during 2024, while through the Vitality Programme members received £99m worth of benefits, according to its most recent data.
All told, around 19 million workouts by members were tracked by a wearable device, there were six million gym visits and 342,000 parkruns completed in the previous year.
As a result, the free rewards collected included 1.1 million cinema tickets and 2.9 million Caffé Nero coffees.
But as Taurog emphasises, the key element behind the Vitality approach has been to provide suitable protection cover for members to keep them financially secure when the worst happens.
“We launched Serious Illness Cover (SIC) to recognise medical advancements with the severity of the illness being picked-up earlier and where members were paid earlier,” he says.
“We’ve seen that one in seven Serious Illness Cover claims we paid wouldn’t have been paid by competitor critical illness products just because we cover more conditions.
“And we’ve seen one in 10 claims paid were secondary payments, where someone had already had a payment for an illness that then evolved, or had an unrelated condition.
“Had those one in 10 claimants taken out traditional critical illness cover, their plan may have ended after their first claim, leaving them uninsured and uninsurable.
“So we’re seeing it now coming through in the claims we’re paying out.”
Customers understand the value
And it seems the focus on building an insurance proposition which gives something back to members is seeing benefits in its core reason for being, as Taurog explains coverage rates are higher among this population, benefiting all involved.
“We see the customers use that value; they actually buy more because they see they’re getting something positive back from the policy,” he says.
“We get customers buying more benefits and they’re getting better protection, which is great for the customer and good for the adviser.”
One of those most commonly increased coverages is through the Optimiser products where the benefit amounts insured are 10% higher than on other VitalityLife products.
“What you see is the member uses the upfront saving to buy more cover,” Taurog says.
“We see about 60% additional cover whether that’s adding services, income protection or waivers – customers understand the value, they see the value, they use it to buy more cover and more benefit.
“That’s brilliant for the customer and it’s great for the advisor, because it changes the whole conversation from something that might have been a grudge purchase to something that’s maybe tangible, a bit more engaging.
“So the customer gets better protective cover and the adviser is writing a more holistic protection product.”
Earlier this year the insurer launched its Pick and Play to the Vitality Programme.
“The whole premise behind that is to get more people active, create these habits and make it a bit more fun,” Taurog continues.
“We’re trying to get people more engaged and create habits and from an adviser perspective, what we see is more customers are engaged in their life insurance and seeing value out of it.”
