Roger Edwards, of Roger Edwards Marketing Ltd, speaking at today’s Financial Services Expo (FSE) Manchester, suggested that consumers were not securing the right levels of protection because there was too little focus from the protection market on positive outcomes for those that did.

He said:

“Twenty years ago, people didn’t take out protection products for three reasons. They said, ‘I don’t need it; it’s too expensive; and they [the insurers] won’t pay out’. Twenty years on they are giving the same reasons for why they won’t buy and we need to get over this. In order to do this we need to get them in front of an adviser and we can use technology to do this in order to overcome those objectives.”

Edwards suggested that advisers could use their protection success stories, where clients had taken out products, claimed, been paid, and ultimately had their financial futures’ secured, in order to illustrate the positive aspect.

He said: “We need to use stories to tell people why it’s important to take out protection. Don’t talk about the product, talk about the outcome, and use social media to do this. Rescuing someone’s entire financial future is a great story to tell and I believe [advisers’] websites can become the hub to host these positive stories. Nowadays, it’s so much easier to do this via podcasts, videos and articles.”

Edwards also said that the protection market was far too complex and that a culture whereby it was okay to ‘disappoint’ was prevalent. He cited the example that one in four customers who an adviser recommends to a provider for a particular product with a particular price, would not be able to secure that product at that rate. 

He also suggested far more could be done to generate a positive view on the paying of claims. “A massive amount of claims are being paid but the public think that we only pay 38% of claims when the reality is that it’s close to the high 90s,” he said. “The man on the street doesn’t see these figures.”