Contestants on The Chase being asked this question suggests it is not as easy to answer as it should be
As entertaining as life insurance may be (for us at least), one of its most crucial products made a rare appearance on prime-time TV yesterday.
Contestants on ITV game show The Chase were asked the question: ‘What insurance contract is often referred to as IP?'
Despite initially answering incorrectly ("insurance premiums"), the participators eventually got it right, however the very fact it has been asked during a mind-testing quiz show is a sign that our industry is perhaps not making its products easy enough for customers to understand, said one industry commentator.
Watched by Matthew Chapman, insurance expert at Plus Healthcare and founder of MCAB Adviser Coaching, he said on LinkedIn: "I was pleased to see the contestants got it right, answering ‘income protection'. But it did get me thinking how we really do like to make things more difficult for ourselves and our clients.
"We tend to use over complicated language, jargon, acronyms, terminology and explanations. To such an extent that it has now inspired a question on The Chase!
"I'm happy to see that the contestants eventually got it right having first answered ‘insurance premiums' but it left me feeling that we still have a lot of work to do to simplify, educate and increase access to our products for the average consumer."
He added that campaigns such as Seven Families have been very effective in communicating the value of income protection to consumers in the past, adding: "We MUST keep this momentum going, especially at such a crucial time.
"Financial resilience has never been so important. So let's try to get talking but using plain English and in more relatable terms where we can."
