Many of you out there may act and feel younger than you are - and the antics of some at industry bashes would certainly support this assertion - but what about those who really are still young?
According to new research by Standard Life Healthcare advisers have a massive impact to make to the younger generation - as 75% of adults under the age of 25 surveyed said they would be interested in options for funding healthcare. If fact just under half (48%) expected a financial adviser to help them protect themselves from medical costs in case they could not, or did not, want to wait for NHS treatment.
Mike Hall, chief executive of Standard Life Healthcare believes these statistics show the increasing awareness of the reality of medical costs as well as the size of the opportunity that still exists for advisers. To underline his point he adds: “With so many younger people seeing IFAs as the route to healthcare planning a huge opportunity exists for advisers. To benefit, IFAs can show this ever more discerning group how staying healthy while they are younger and working towards a healthy – and wealthy – retirement requires planning.”
But is he right? Stephen Walker, chief executive of Medical Insurance Services, certainly thinks so commenting that “younger people need an incentive in order to consider spending on medical insurance premiums” pointing to the fact that PruHealth has been successful in this respect.
So, no matter what their own age - advisers need to consider what concept will appeal best to a younger person. Obviously PruProtect comes immediately to mind as it is aimed at the younger market, but a good cost effective long-term option could also be the National Deposit Healthcare Deposit Account which enables people to set their own premiums and puts half of those premiums in to the client’s personal deposit account.
However, while this massive opportunity for advisers has been recognised, they are going to need help. As Walker says: “Insurers should be giving more assistance to advisers to tap into this potential market”.
Interestingly, the survey also reported that old adages can ring true and that familiarity can indeed still breed contempt. It states that informality that is increasingly becoming the norm does not extend to how people want to be treated by customer services staff. Nearly nine in ten people still prefer the more traditional good morning/afternoon or hello when they first speak to someone.
So with that in mind, thank you for reading – and have a very good week.
