At the Association of British Insurers Protection Committee's recent meeting on how to improve the c...
At the Association of British Insurers Protection Committee's recent meeting on how to improve the current income protection offering, five key areas emerged where people believed more work is needed.
One of those areas was raising standards of advice.
While I couldn't agree more, it is vital the industry does not just start pointing a finger at intermediaries for not delivering enough but rather see what can be done to help advisers become even more knowledgeable.
Education is key here. While a basic-level exam on protection already exists, there are currently no specialist advanced-level exams available to protection advisers as there are in the savings and investments arenas.
This cannot be right. With industry experts continuing to point out how crucial it is that intermediaries know their stuff, surely protection intermediaries should be allowed to gain the same level of qualifications as other IFAs. As one adviser expressed it: "This would be a step towards quality protection advice being seen as equally important to quality investment or pension advice, which it is."
Luckily, it now seems like the Chartered Insurance Institute and Personal Finance Society have caved into pressure from protection intermediaries and are considering several options on how to help protection intermediaries, including launching an advanced-level protection exam.
If this goes ahead, it will not only help advisers feel more confident when advising on protection but will also highlight how important protection is. Because by treating protection as an area as equally complex as pensions, people are more likely to realise that protection is something that is a necessity - not a luxury.
Johanna Gornitzki, editor
