3) Publish claims statistics (and shout about them)
While publishing claim stats has become the norm, ideally we need to get to a stage where all providers are publishing claims statistics in a timely and standardised manner.
At present the content and timing of the information varies and when companies do publish their numbers it is often little more than a press release once a year.
We need to think about what more we can all do with marketing, advertising, case studies, technology and more to get the good news out there.
Publishing claims stats has helped raise the credibility of protection insurance with consumers, advisers and media probably more than anything else in the past 20 years.
Advisers can use these stats along with other tools and examples to demonstrate the need for cover and build trust.
4) Build upon industry-wide initiatives
Feedback from advisers, insurers, the media and consumer groups all suggest that the Seven Families initiative did much to help raise the profile and credibility of the IP sector. It now provides IFAs with a conversation starting point with clients and a set of valuable tools.
“Seven Families has been a wonderful initiative,” says Ms Gilchrist. “It’s independent from the insurance industry, therefore IFAs can use the real-life case studies to show customers not just the insurance aspect of the product, but also the support provided to the families by the insurers.
“It’s interesting to note that the families involved say that the added value services were as important as the insurance payout.”
There are lots of ideas and much debate about where Seven Families should go next. While we might see Seven Families II in 2018, it is yet to be determined exactly what that might look like.
In the meantime, even though the project ended last summer the Facebook page and family videos are still very much in use and some of the participants are continuing to speak to the media and speak at industry events.
As long as funding and support from insurers continues I expect we’ll see more from Seven Families this year too as the IPTF (Income Protection Taskforce) who manage the project have several new ideas on the table to further raise the profile of IP amongst the public.
5) Grow added-value services
In focusing on ways to ensure regular touch-points with IP, we can look to the group sector’s experience, as well as the individual market, with regards to added value benefits.
These can include anything from nurse helplines, virtual GP services, physiotherapy and osteopathy to telephone counseling and carer support services.
