06 WINTER PROTECT NEWSLETTER advantage of some Insurer “guaranteed fixed rates” for up to six months once a quote is completed thereby beating the almost inevitable price hike. GI Sales are up at a healthy level too within Paradigm Protect members many of whom are latching on to this as a sales tool Saving clients money as well as adding to your own income may well help bridge the income gap left by the rise in PT sales What do Consumers think of us ? Yet again this year we have seen the inciteful report produced by AMI with it’s sample size of around 3000 Consumers and almost 300 brokers and new this year there was a further focus on qualitative research. It tells us that younger consumers still prefer independent advice. The use of technology to grab the attention of younger consumers is vital for this even if then the traditional face to face model of transacting is then implemented – the research tells us that around 50% of firms do still not have Social Media presence and are therefore missing the clients of the future. - Something to bear in mind as we all look to refresh business plans at the start of a new year. Most advisers report that they discuss protection insurance with their customers in connection with a mortgage. However, these conversations are not always resonating. The first year of the Viewpoint study (2020) set the benchmark. Whilst we have moved the dial slightly, there remains a significant gap between the number of advisers that initiate protection conversation and those consumers that remember it. There’s an opportunity to move the dial further. Positively, the proportion of advisers who say they advise on protection directly with their customers has increased substantially – 82% in 2025 versus 66% in 2023. Since protection conversations aren’t resonating as strongly as we’d like, it’s clear we need to go further. Driving protection conversations around customer needs and not product is essential, and we shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of emotive human-to-human connection as part of protection conversations. Respondents were asked about when they were getting the Mortgage, how many of them had a “Protection” conversation – 39% recalled Protection being mentioned by their mortgage adviser. This represents only a small increase over five years, up from 36% in 2020. We find the more successful firms start the protection conversation as an integral part of the mortgage discussion, which not only helps to understand budgeting for it, but serves to get the client engagement and the "buy in" of the need early in the process. Advisers who tend to stay away from jargon such as "Term" and "Income Protection" but use phrases such as "paying your mortgage lender if you are sick" also help clients to engage better. The link to the research is here and it is well worth a read if you haven’t yet done so. What else has 2026 in store ? FCA Protection Review The FCA have implemented a review of the Protection Market, much of which has been aired in the Press over the past twelve months. Initial Consultations were followed by more “in-depth” data collection from both Insurers and distributors. Areas “in scope” are broadly: • Pricing v Commission Levels • Commission incentives • Replacement Policies • Advised v Non-advised • Over 50s Plans • Multi-Ties • Protection Provider Market • Reassurance • Lead Generation Each area is looking at whether the Regulator feels Consumers are receiving the “best possible outcomes” from the current Market. It is likely now that they will feed back their initial findings in Q1 2026.
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