Survey shows UK penetration not high enough
By Peter Carvill
UK consumers taking out mortgages are twice as likely to buy life policies in comparison to the average worldwide consumer yet are still under-protected, according to Axa's international Protection Scope survey.
The survey, conducted by telephone in 10 developed countries, showed the average proportion of adults who said they bought a life policy in conjunction with a mortgage was 20% while in the UK this rose to 40%.
Iain Mallon, head of protection at Axa, said while market penetration was relatively high in the UK, the situation was still far from ideal.
"We've had a decade of a pretty stable economic environment and people have become relaxed because they don't understand the risks."
He added: "These figures give a high level of statistics where they compare one market to another. If you have 60% to 70% market penetration in home and contents insurance and just 40% in life policies, there is something wrong there."
Explaining how the effects of being unprotected differ in terms of policies being taken out, Mallon said: "If someone dies and leaves a young family, it's a different sense of tragedy."
Mallon called for IFAs to be given more time and training in selling protection to their clients. "We should try to help intermediaries through training and giving them the time to sell protection products. Claims is all about that process - get that right and you get the claims right."
