COVER talks to SimplyBiz's head of protection services, Emma Vaughan, about how he is bringing her protection experience to her new role, the progress the industry has made on diversity and inclusivity, and how advisers can better communicate with and understand their clients.
Earlier this month, Emma Vaughan joined SimplyBiz as its new head of protection services, having worked across a number of protection-based roles over the best part of the last 15 years.
In her most recent role prior to joining Simplybiz, Vaughan was a national account manager for British Friendly, overssing the North East, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland regions, as well as holding the strategic relationships for Tenet and The Right Mortgage. She previously held roles as key account and key relationship manager with The Exeter and Legal & General respectively.
A member of the Women in Protection Network, Vaughan was also recently involved in the strategic development of propositions designed to bridge the gap for customers who previously may not have had access to insurance.
COVER spoke to Vaughan about what she is bringing from her previous roles to SimplyBiz, how the industry can make further progress on diversity/inclusivity and make insurance accessible to more people, and tackling the protection gap.
What has been at the top of your agenda during your time so far at SimplyBiz?
My number one priority since joining SimplyBiz has been to understand all the great things the business currently does, and how that translates into support for our member firms. We work with the biggest and best partners in our industry, and I want to connect more of them to our advisers which will start to create better customer outcomes.
SimplyBiz is known for its amazing work in the wealth and mortgage arena, so I am looking at ways that we can best utilise our reach within the market to further enhance the proposition to support advisers with their protection conversations.
How are you using your experiences with L&G and British Friendly in your new role?
At British Friendly I was able get involved in quite a few different areas of the business which helped shape how I move forward in my new role. I have worked in intermediary facing roles for many years and this has given me insight into what support our member firms are looking for, and which solutions our partners can offer them. In that role, I supported the development and roll-out of a new online platform which complements SimplyBiz's direction of travel in the Fintech world.
During the pandemic, I also supported the claims team by working closely with customers and this really opened my eyes to how the insurance industry can really make a difference to someone's life, and that it doesn't have to be just a piece of paper that sits in the back of the drawer until the worst happens.
What should be the main areas of focus for protection advisers over the next few years to help improve the industry?
The main priority for advisers over the coming years should be to start bridging the protection gap that has been highlighted even further during the pandemic and increased by the rush of house buying during the stamp duty holiday. Consumers are starting to wake up to protection conversations, so now it's time to use this to our advantage.
Advisers have access to a wealth of support from protection providers and could be using their contacts to understand how they can reach more customers and the solutions they have to offer. Protection providers have diversified over the years, so whichever demographic advisers are looking at there will be a mainstream provider or specialist provider that can help them.
Protection is not just for the white-collar workers anymore, and there is a massively underserved market that needs to be tackled. These customers wouldn't typically seek advice for insurance but, with so many good news stories coming out over the past 18 months, advisers can really add value to their conversations.
How can protection better promote and encourage greater diversity and inclusivity within the sector?
I believe we have already started to see changes to diversity and inclusivity in our sector, but more work needs to be done. Going back 10 years, there was very much a stereotype within our industry that didn't encourage fresh, exciting, new blood into the sector but over the past few years there has been a shift in certain areas of the country that has seen financial services companies step outside the box.
The biggest shift that I have seen is advisory firms bringing in people who usually wouldn't previously have had access to a financial services career. They may not have a ‘traditional background' for a protection adviser, but their attitude and work ethic make them perfect to get the message across.
Add to this how technologically minded the younger generation are and we are looking at a very exciting, diverse future that will include everyone.
How do you think can advisers better understand the diverse and unique needs of their clients using the array of communication channels available to them?
There are so many channels advisers can use to understand their clients, and not all of them will work for everyone so it's best to utilise them all and tailor their messages to that demographic. By understanding what the pain points are for a particular set of customers, advisers can offer them a solution that they can access easily and in a way that suits them.
Social media has had a massive impact on protection during the pandemic, with advisers now able to reach so many different types of customer, but even if the message only lands with a handful of people and just they see the value, then that's still a few more families protected. An 18-year-old, just starting work but living at home, may not see the value of life cover but they may understand the need to cover their phone bills, gym subscription or trainer habit if they are too sick to work.
One social media post could address that, and highlight the need to their peers too.
What would you like to see more of from the protection industry to further initiatives such as Access to Insurance and treating customers fairly?
There are so many amazing initiatives in the industry at the moment and the best way to further them is to get more people involved so more can understand what they are. Ring-fencing to certain individuals within a business doesn't help spread the message so we need to share the information among colleagues and give them the opportunity to be involved.
Businesses can start introducing these things at induction courses for new starters, so employees know from day one that our industry is not just about sales - it's about supporting as many people as we can with the solutions we have in our sector and bringing in new joiners, with new ideas to move things forward.
We also need to make it more engaging. The more people that resonate with the initiatives, the more passionate they will be about them. Hopefully, with the world beginning to return to some kind of normal and events starting up again, we will be able to see first-hand and face-to-face the amazing things that these initiatives achieve.
