Protection Update 24th September 2021

The Protection Insight Hub >>

Hello everyone and welcome to this protection update – Friday 24th September 2021

Income Protection Awareness Week

So, did you manage to get to any of the Income Protection Awareness events this week?  I hope so, because it was really inspirational and we heard from advisers and providers from all across the industry to make this concerted effort to share ideas about how we can have better and more meaningful conversations about income loss through sickness, accident or incapacity.

If you didn’t manage to get along; don’t worry, everything was recorded and I’ve got some links for you.

I think the key day for me was Tuesday because that was the ‘Mortgage day’ and there were some really good ideas shared during that hour long session.

One thing that came out which I thought was so simple, but what a good idea was that; during the mortgage process when you’re asking the client to get various different bits of information for you… why not also ask them to confirm their sick pay arrangements from work?

Will they know off the top of their heads?  Probably not, but they can find out easily.  They might just need to speak to their HR department.

That’s what some advisers actually do and they request this during the mortgage process.

But why’s that a good idea from a sales process point of view.

Well firstly, we know the energy is always high during the mortgage stage.  The client knows what’s at the end of that rainbow.

Also, you’re setting down a marker and a level of expectation and normal business practice which is that being able to pay the mortgage is very important.  We’ve got those risk statements on the mortgage offer and mortgage illustrations and we know they talk about the importance of making sure the client can maintain those mortgage payments.

Why might they not be able to maintain their mortgage payments?

If they lose their income; so it makes a lot of sense to get that information about exactly what their sick pay arrangements are for when you do have the protection meeting.

If you wait until your having the protection conversation; the client might still need to go and find out what their sick pay arrangements are which slows or could even end your chances of making a firm recommendation about Income Protection.  And that’s because you can’t recommend something until you appreciate what they’ve already got.

And from my experience; clients can be unreliable.  They don’t always know what they’ve got.  They sometimes think they’ve got more than they actually do.

I remember a client about 15 years ago who told me they 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay from work.

Something didn’t quite seem right so I checked this with her employer and do you know what she actually had?

Statutory Sick Pay – and that’s it.

So, I thought that was a really simple, but quite a good practical idea.

Adviser Case Study videos

Now on the IPTF (the income protection task force) YouTube channel; they’ve been posting face to camera adviser case study videos where the advisers talk about how they engage clients on the subject of income protection.  They talk about their experiences and even claim situations they’ve been involved in.

There were 5 different adviser videos which I think are all brilliant and definitely worth taking a look at.

But I’m also really proud that 2 of the 5 were from advisers within our network.

So, a big thankyou to Sarah Fox from Merigan Reis.  Sarah is passionate about protection and has a really good balance to all the different protection she recommends in terms of the amount of life cover to critical illness cover to income protection cover and it was great to hear some of her experiences and contributing to Income Protection Awareness Week.

And also, a shout out to Karla Edwards who is a new adviser to our network but didn’t waste any time posting up a video where she shares her experiences about engaging clients on the subject of income protection.

Take a look at her website – theprotectionparent.co.uk – it’s excellent, and also, Karla is brilliant with social media and does regular podcasts, but she also does tik-tok videos…  Really innovative and I’m mentioning Karla because we can all learn from each others experiences and things that start the conversation!

Well done both of you – and thank you for supporting this industry initiative.

I’ve posted a link to the YouTube page on this protection update and you’ll see all 5 short videos there as well as a replay of everything else that happened this week.

I’ve also added a neat little Info graphic which was built specifically for Mortgage Advisers which was used during the campaign:

And one more thing… if you listen to the Tuesday session replay; I did the key note presentation at the beginning and I added something to set the tone at the beginning of my presentation with a bit called “Angry Mike”.  It was kind of a disturbance clip.

I didn’t use actors, but I did use a couple of members of staff from within the network.  Let me know if you can spot who they are for their Oscar winning performances!

IPTF YouTube page

Better Sick Pay Schemes

So next week, we’re going to kick off our own campaign where we focus on Income Protection and it’s called Better Sick Pay Schemes.

We’ve got 3 dates in the diary for these sessions and I did write to each and every one of you this week, just to let you know and remind you about what we’re doing and how you can register.

On Monday 27th, we will be kicking off at 10am and we’ve got a provider lineup of Cirencester Friendly, The Exeter & National Friendly.

On Wednesday 29th, we will again be kicking off at 10am and we’ve got a provider lineup of, The Exeter, Aviva & British Friendly

And then a few weeks later, we’ll be running our third session on Wednesday 20th October and the provider lineup is National Friendly, Royal London & MetLife.

So, we’ll turn some of those sessions into podcasts so you don’t miss out and I’ll release those through our weekly Friday protection updates.

But, if you haven’t yet registered for any of these workshops, I’ve added a link to this protection update.  Once we reach 100 advisers, I’ll have to close the registration links as the software won’t allow any more than 100 in.

Better Sick Pay Schemes – How to REGISTER:

British Friendly bring back Day 1 & 1 week deferred periods to IP

And, one very quick thing about income protection which is you might have noticed; but if not; British Friendly have just reintroduced day1 and 1-week deferred periods to their IP proposition.

So if you’re doing any quotations on solution builder, you will now see those option available for your clients.

And of course, we will get to hear from them next week.

Zurich Pre Sales Underwriting

Now I know you can never have too much income protection content, but I’m going to change the subject now to something a little bit more broad and it’s this weeks protection insight podcast.

I sat down with Andy King a couple of weeks ago to look at the Zurich Pre Sales Underwriting tool.

For me, it’s one of the best I’ve seen because of its simplicity and ease of use.

In this week’s podcast, you’ll see a couple of examples we demonstrate where we don’t actually know all the information about the client, but we can still drive out a decision.

I’ve attached the insight podcast to this week’s protection update so take a look and let me know what you think.

Using it could save you a lot of time and effort whenever you get those slightly nonstandard cases.

ZURICH PRE SALES UNDERWRITING – PROTECTION INSIGHT PODCAST

And finally, talking about Zurich… you should have seen/or you will see a handy little info graphic published this week which shows you the process for claiming their Fracture Cover.  If you missed it, I’ve added a link to this week’s protection update.

Zurich Infographic:

So, there’s lots and lots going on at the moment and lots to look forward to as we approach autumn and the last quarter of 2021.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week on Better Sick Pay Schemes!