IFACare's newly appointed chairman Tim Field reveals what needs to be done to ressurect the UK's long term care market. Johanna Gornitzki reports
When asked to choose between life and death, most people would naturally opt for the former. IFACare's newly elected chairman, Tim Field, however, believes the latter could, in some instances, prove to be a better option.
"Dying could actually be a quite good solution for a client because living for a long time without full capacity could be a major problem," he says.
While this declaration may suggest Field is somewhat heartless, this could not be further from the truth.
On the contrary, his dedication when talking about the long term care (LTC) market and his desire to make sure older people are taken care of, reveals a considerable compassion.
Field first entered the financial services industry in 1977 when he became a financial adviser.
But while he is today seen as one of the LTC sector's prominent figures, Field's financial career didn't quite start off that way.
"At first I showed people how to
acquire assets because obviously that is the most important thing.
However, as I have grown older, my clients have grown older too and they have now acquired the assets they need and have reached a time in their life when they want to preserve those assets," he says.
This is when he began to look closer at the options available in the LTC market.
His growing interest in this field led him to become involved with IFACare during the mid- 90s – an organisation whose members are specialists in planning and advising clients on retirement planning.
He also rebranded his own company, Lifestyle Future, to focus on people in or approaching retirement, in October 2002.
Raising awareness Field's dedication to this market didn't go unnoticed and in March this year he was elected to fill the boots of IFACare's departing chairman, Graham Fidoe.
While excited about the opportunity he has been given, Field is not taking the challenge lightly.
"When he [Fidoe] first suggested putting my name forward I knew it was going to be very hard.
He is a very energetic and enthusiastic person and he has put in a lot of work during the time he has been chairman I will now have to try to match that and it won't be very easy." But Field has a game plan.
Initially, when IFACare first launched, its remit was to concentrate on the LTC market, providing advisers in that field with education on the subject as well as creating a forum where they could get together and share ideas and experiences.
However, as time has gone by and as the membership and the market has developed, Field believes IFACare now needs to offer more holistic advice for the older generation.
And this work is already underway.
Besides widening its scope, Field also has other plans for the organisation, including doubling the 180-strong membership over the next two years as well as raising the profile of the organisation.
"We need to develop the brand of IFACare because I feel that at the moment the public don't know where to go for specialist advice in this area."
In the greater scheme of things, Field also wants to raise awareness of the LTC sector. "Longevity has actually become a problem, whereas when I first started out in 1977, it wasn't. Back then, there were statistics that showed three out of five males who retired at the age of 65 would be dead by the time they reached 70. Now, male life expectancy is late 70s or early 80s so
the market for advice has expanded dramatically."
But the fact that the number of old people in the UK has increased massively over the past decade has not helped the LTC sector to flourish.
Instead, the last couple of years have seen pre-funded sales go from bad to worse with the majority of product providers pulling out of the market.
So what has gone wrong? Field thinks the root of the problem lies in the fact that most people focus on making short-term plans.
"This is partly because of ignorance and in some cases because of a lack of understanding by the Government, the media, the public and product providers as well as advisers," he says.
Consumers, especially, have shown resistance to planning for the very long-term.
"A lot of people don't make wills because it is almost like a death wish.
They don't like to think about themselves dying. It is the same when it comes to long term care planning," he says.
With the multitude of problems facing the LTC sector, it seems like an impossible task to remain positive and believe there may be better times to come. But Field does not despair.
He believes there could be a solution to this.
"There is definitely huge potential here as people are living longer.
All we need to do is some 'creative thinking' in terms of product development."
He suggests that it is high time to start putting ideas forward on how the next generation of products should look like.
And he doesn't believe they are going to be like the pre-funded products the market has been promoting in the past, but will rather be a combination of an insured and an investment product.
Specialist He explains:
"When you are in retirement, why would you want to save money anymore because this is when you would like to spend it.
"One of the problems with insurance is that people do not like paying for something if they actually know whether they are going to benefit from it.
If you, however, ring fence some of your savings it would be there for you to use even if you haven't spent the money on a product," he says.
Looking ahead, Field remains optimistic.
"It will be possible to revive the long term care market although we won't be seeing the re appearance of the really focused insurance products again as we know that there has been problems with making a profit out of that contract."
He doesn't find it impossible imagining that several providers may re-enter the market in the near future.
However, he thinks it will be IFACare's job to try and coax them back by providing them with a platform where they can take the discussion regarding the LTC market's future a step further.
"The whole debate must be accelerated, because if we can do that, then the awareness will be there and alongside it the desire to fill this gap. And if we can accelerate that debate we could get to a stage where there will be action instead of just talking," he says.
And that, Field believes, is his mission.
