Protection markets are ripe for change. Paul Robertson interviews Iain Clark of LV= and suspects the company intends to be at the forefront.
Iain Clark is a very easy man to interview. Ask him a question and he answers in a reasonable, clear and logical manner. OK, he is not necessarily concise, but then he is - as managing director of protection at LV= - in marketing.
All firms pick and choose where to focus, and LV= has for some time been shining a light on its various interactions with brokers. This is not all altruism of course; it does pay dividends.
In the run-up to the implementation of the gender directive, LV= was one of the few companies to make a real effort in explaining what the repercussions were and to make an attempt be clear on its approach to the changes.
It would seem that, along with the others that made the effort, it reaped the rewards, with its latest protection results showing a 15% increase.
Ties with tenet group
More lately, it has been examining its relationship with the networks, recently announcing a strengthened partnership with the Tenet Group.
LV= regional sales teams will now provide their local Tenet advisers with on the ground sales and technical support.
The idea is to provide advisers with technical updates and regular articles and in the second half of the year, LV= will host a series of seminars for Tenet advisers.
Clark explained LV= identified the adviser as one of the weak links in its distribution chain, but not through any fault of their own.
The Tenet link stems from this. "We are trying to find a way of increasing business for them and their accounts," he says. "We are also trying to interact with the adviser base in more ways than possibly others have in the past.
"It is about education; it is about going back on stuff that possibly - do not take this the wrong way - was done in the old days, about sales and how you engage with a customer, that maybe some of these people have forgotten.
"It is just going back to those roots."
