Enhanced flexibility and greater simplicity, Legal & General’s recently launched Rental Protection Plan
Last year, a survey from Sainsbury's Bank revealed that only a quarter of renters (26%) are likely to have life insurance or critical illness cover (CI), compared to almost half of homeowners. Bearing in mind that income protection (IP) sales still make up less than 50% of CI sales, we expect the figure for renters covered by IP to be significantly less than a quarter.
In fact, recent research by Hymans Robertson suggested that only 18% of UK renters believed they had some form of protection insurance in place, 7% relating to individual protection, and 11% through their employer - even that figure, to us, feels a tad optimistic.
The lack of financial protection on risk for renters flies in the face of two significant factors. Firstly, income protection, industry experts will tell you, is the best-placed product to meet the protection needs of renters. Secondly, renters are just as vulnerable to an income shock as homeowners - or arguably more so.
"Ask yourself a simple question," Cavendish Ware's Roy McLoughlin tells COVER. "In the event of illness who will be more sympathetic… the lender or the private landlord? Work that out and you will realise that the ever increasing rental sector needs our help more than ever."
It's not just the need for rental protection that makes this underserved section of society so compelling. The sheer size of it also makes it a market crying out to be tapped.
COVER has teamed up with L&G to help advisers talk about income protection with clients.
