Protection Update 20th August 2021
Hi everyone and welcome to my protection update – Friday 20th August 2021.
So, what’s happening in Protection right now?
Well, I read an interesting article from the head of protection from another network this week about signposting.
What do we mean by that?
Well, there are different interpretations of ‘signposting’ in protection… sometimes this is about signposting the client to other services or referring business when it’s difficult to find cover for clients.
But, more fundamentally; for me it’s about duty of care.
You’ve heard the industry talk about ‘vulnerable clients’ and there are different types of clients that refers to. Perhaps people with learning difficulties, where they have some kind of impairment.
But what about this.
A client who has just taken on a large secured mortgage debt that you have arranged. Are they more financially vulnerable after they took your advice to arrange the mortgage?
It’s something the FCA are looking at and I think this piece about vulnerable clients is going to come into even sharper focus in the coming months.
I’d say a client who has taken on large financial liabilities is more vulnerable.
Obviously, buying the home was the objective and we helped them achieve that.
But what about making sure they don’t lose it?
That’s protection. And it just means we either have a conversation with them about what those actual risks are, because that’s going to put them in an informed position where they have the opportunity to do something about it.
Or, signpost it. If you’re too busy; put them in touch with someone else who can have that conversation with them.
But doing nothing at all shouldn’t even be an option.
I remember someone telling me, about 20 years ago that, “you know… as an adviser, I get to talk to lots of different clients about protection. Some will take my advice and buy. Some won’t and will walk away with nothing. But I make sure I talk to all of them.
Yes, when they buy, it makes a little different to my life and when they don’t buy, it makes a little difference…
But the thing is… I’ve always got more people to speak to about protection. How many times in a lifetime do people get to speak to an expert adviser… It’s not many”
When I recall that story, it’s kind of poignant to me because that adviser had cancer and he died within a year after saying that.
But some of the protection plans he set up will still be in force today, protecting families.
So, put protection on the agenda!
Keep it simple and talk about things that matter to clients. They will buy into it if they understand it.
If you can’t do it yourself, put them in touch with someone who can.
Trusts made simple – next week – final call!
Now you know if you tune into my weekly podcasts and protection update, I am on a bit of mission about Trusts.
So, I do apologize if I sound like a broken record, but next week, Wednesday 25th August, we’re running our final ‘Trusts made Simple’ workshop.
Obviously, I know many of you listening to this might have attended one of the earlier sessions but if you haven’t, and you would like to attend; there is a link on this protection update.
You just need to register and the session will kick off at 10am on Wednesday.
You’ll even get a couple of hours of CPD!
Royal London Protection Insight & Bonus Podcast!
Writing a life policy into Trust with Royal London
Digital Signatures with DocuSign
Now as part of this ‘Trusts Made Simple’ campaign; as well as the webinar workshops, I’m sitting down with various providers to look at their trust processes using the exact same case study.
The client is John and he’s got a single life policy. But he’s unmarried and he wants the money (at this point in time) to go to Janet who is his unmarried partner.
Each week we’re publishing a different podcast to show that journey about how to write the policy into Trust with a different provider.
Two weeks ago, we started with Aviva. Last week was Aegon. This week is Royal London – and these are all on the same podcast page in chronological order if you want to see the previous podcasts.
So, on this protection update you will see a link to the Royal London podcast where we show you that journey of how to write John’s protection policy into a Royal London Trust.
Now, when I sat down with Tony Ormond to record the podcast; Royal London had just updated their trust form to allow digital signatures, which is quite new to the protection market.
But it wasn’t something we could demonstrate when we recorded the podcast.
When I looked back at the podcast, it just felt like we’d skirted around a big issue you probably will be interested in.
So, attached to this protection update is a bonus podcast showing you that exact same journey.
Watch the Royal London podcast first because that will give you the context of how to compose the form using the Royal London trust rules.
But then take a look at the ‘Digital Signature with DocuSign’ podcast as I’ll demonstrate the exact step by step process to do the digital signature.
And by the way… I haven’t used DocuSign before. They just came up first on my google search and I know they are one of the biggest providers of digital signature capability – but others such as AdobeSign are available.
So, that’s it from me for another Friday protection update.
I hope to see some of you on next weeks Trust made Simple workshop (remember it’s the last one so please come if you haven’t already attended this workshop)
Have a great weekend – See you soon!
