Protection Update 7th January 2022

Protection Update 7th January 2022

Happy new year everybody and welcome to the first protection update of 2022.

I hope you had a good break over the holidays and spent some quality time with your families.

It was quite a shock to my system returning to work earlier this week but after returning to a bit of normality, it does feel good to be back.

Now just before we broke for Christmas, you should have received a communication from Amy Wilson with regards to some changes which were being brought in by Paymentshield (obviously, Paymentshield are a general insurance provider and you might be wondering why I’m talking about them in this protection update).

Well, what Amy wrote to you about was the fact that Paymentshield are introducing some changes which mean they will effectively stop paying renewal commission once the policy reaches its 10^th year anniversary.

We’re going to have to manage that and I know this has affected some advisers in the network who do have a decent back book of business.  We’re going to find out exactly what your options are and how we can manage this going forward, but it got me thinking… from a pure protection point of view how often do we (and should we) keep in touch with our customers?

How do we make this happen?

Is there a process we operate with our business?

Or is it a more organic and natural thing?

Are you worried there aren’t enough legitimate and urgent reasons to keep in touch with clients?  I’m talking beyond the time the fixed or discounted rate on the mortgage is up for renewal?

If we rely on clients to come back to us; how can we know whether something has changed in the circumstances of an existing client?

In fact; let’s ask the question.  Should you proactively (and part of your active sales process) keep in touch with your clients and if so, how can you do it?

Well, it’s only 7^th January and it’s not too late to make a new year’s resolution right now about how you’re going to operate within your business and this idea of keeping in touch.

So that’s what I want to talk about in this week’s protection update.

Simple decisions we can make right now can help make 2022 your most successful year yet.

And, specifically, I want to focus on reasons to keep in touch with your clients in this week’s protection update.

Be the architect of your own business rules!

Here’s the thing… when you think about your normal working week, there are things you do which you’ve consciously or unconsciously decided are good ideas and ways or working that suit the way you like to do things.

Some of these working practices can help you maximize the opportunity of you being successful.  Other things will harm your chances and those are things you should look to eliminate from your business and your way of doing things.

So let’s look at a very simple example…

What’s going to happen if you never talk to your clients about something which you think is quite an important service you can offer to your clients.  Let’s call it protection?

How successful are you going to be this year with protection (if you never proactively talk about protection)?

I’d suggest you won’t be successful.  You might pick up bits and pieces, but you have to put protection front and centre of your business.  That’s a conscious decision you can make.

You have to talk about protection.  You have to be assertive, confident.  Be passionate about it.

But also explain what it means in terms your clients can relate to and they can understand.

Is protection a good idea?  Yes, of course it is – and your clients will agree it’s a good idea because they will take your advice and recommendation once they understand it.

You won’t find many clients who have actually made a claim on a policy who didn’t see the value in taking it out in the first place.

But; as simple as it sounds; we know you have to put protection on the agenda and make sure the conversation happens.

You’re in control of that… you’re the architect of your own sales process and business rules and I’m sure that’s what you do – but everything we do is a choice for how you do things in a way that compliments you, your values and the way you want to run your business.

And we know there are advisers who choose not to talk about it!  And because they choose not to talk about protection; it doesn’t happen.

What next?

Let’s say you’ve made a protection recommendation to your customer and they take your advice.  They take out the policy…

Is it fair to say that most clients still have protection gaps?  They might have taken out some mortgage protection, but what about beyond that?  What about protecting their income?  What about their lifestyle?

Again, if the answer to that question is ‘yes’, most clients do typically have other protection need areas – protection gaps.

How do you frame that situation with your clients?  Do you talk about those gaps or are you just happy they took out some level of cover?  When will you realistically speak to that client again?

Again, you can make a conscious decision to talk about the fact there are still gaps in the overall protection plan.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and very rarely are protection portfolios.

It’s often something which takes a while and it needs to take into account the circumstances which will inevitably change during your lifetime.  Some ‘protection need’ areas become less of a priority whilst others become more of a priority because, as I say, things are constantly changing in life.

So something you can introduce into your sales process right now is what I call the ‘dentist approach’.

You know what happens after a dentist appointment… they book you back in at a point in the future.

It always makes me smile that they ask whether I’m available at a specific time and date, many months down the line – I’ve got no idea what I’ll be doing, but I make the appointment anyway.  We secure that appointment in the diary and I can always change it at a later date if I need to.

But in my mind; I need to see the dentist again because we’re not done yet.

When you’ve finished with your clients, why not automatically book them back in for a catchup review meeting in a year or so?

If you think about those changes that Paymentshield are bringing in with their general insurance policies; how many of those clients (where they’ve had a policy for 10 years or longer and Paymentshield are no longer going to pay any renewal commission) …

How many of those clients might have purchased something expensive?  Or have received an expensive gift that wouldn’t be covered by that original home insurance policy?  A piece of jewelry, a bike, expensive garden furniture?  Could any of those clients have built extensions on their property?

Is that original buildings and contents policy still fit for purpose?

When I talk about the dentist approach; this can be a review of lots of different things including their home insurance policy.

With protection, tell them this is always a typically long-term project to build a plan that covers all the bases.  It’s not going to happen straight away.

Things are inevitably going to change in life which is why as a responsible business; you’re going to keep in touch from time to time.  If a something better appears on the market; you can make them aware of it.

If something happens in their personal circumstances such as that they get married, have children, get a pay rise or promotion at work this could affect their protection priorities and might bring some new considerations into view.  It might make some others obsolete.

We also know that we’ve had many situations where clients don’t realize they can actually register claims.  Or they don’t realize they can use the services which are built into their protection plans and of course; you can be there to simply help remind them and help them with that.

What I’ve talked about there is just normal life and if you frame that regular catchup meetings from time to time are normal and that’s what’s going to happen; it’s part of your professional service; it will make sense to your clients.

But if you don’t suggest this.  You don’t mention it.  It won’t happen and I think it will weaken your long-term adviser/client relationship.

We use the term ‘one stop shop’ quite often but think about all the propositions you offer your clients there’s so much to talk about.  Trusts, Wills, Protection, Home insurance, Mortgages, loans and more…

And what about changes, amendments, adjustments, using options, new things, reminding them about what they’ve got… there’s just so much.

You can let your clients contact you, and some of them will.  But some won’t.

Or, you can make a concerted effort to make it a process where you automatically and systematically schedule in catchup meetings where you review these things on a proactive basis.

What’s better?  Too many clients, or not enough?

Just a thought to kick things off in 2022.