Justin Garbutt, Director of IFA Distribution at Vitality
We continue to face significant health challenges in the UK and households are still feeling the pinch financially. Plus, the protection gap remains huge.
Against this backdrop, far greater focus is on ensuring client needs are properly met in the most appropriate and affordable way since Consumer Duty. For advisers, then, the balancing act is often offering clients the most comprehensive protection solutions available in a way that best fits their budget.
At our recent Launch 2025, we unveiled product enhancements designed to take life insurance to the next level and help grow the market, with a particular focus on broadened cover solutions and stronger support for when clients need to claim. With this in mind, here are my five tips to offering the most holistic protection advice possible to clients, at a time when this is most needed.
1. Prevention is as important as protection
Having the right financial safety net is absolutely vital for life's unexpected curve balls. But it goes without saying that – if given the choice – most clients would much prefer not to need to claim at all. This is the essence of Vitality's unique Shared Value insurance model, which rewards and incentivises healthy behaviour as part of a client's lifestyle through the Vitality Programme.
Given the health challenges we face in the UK, this provides a powerful and proven way to not just make clients healthier – and help them live up to five years longer[1] - but deliver much more tangible value from day one. While ensuring the best cover is in place should things go wrong, through building the benefits beyond protection into conversations, advisers cannot just deliver more value but help to prevent clients from falling ill (or worse) in the first place. Surely the best possible outcome!
2. Protect against more of the risks your client might face
With Consumer Duty requiring us to avoid foreseeable harm in line with changing client needs, there is an opportunity to think broader about protection needs.
Today, especially, products like Income Protection and Serious Illness Cover can be vital for those with eroded savings or no access to long-term sick pay. Crucially, the severity-based approach of Serious Illness Cover also ensures your clients are covered for more conditions and at the earlier stages of an illness, where there could still be a financial impact. It also means they can claim again if their condition worsens, or they fall ill with something else.
We also know that for certain clients, especially those in more physical or higher-risk jobs, accidents and injuries can be a big concern. Vitality's new Accident and Fracture Cover adopts the same severity principle of Serious Illness Cover and offers market-leading payouts of up to £10,000 for a range of fractures and an additional payout of up to £2,000 if your client is hospitalised or requires surgery.
3. Protection doesn't end at 65
The government's decision to scrap the proposed cap on care fees means that more people will once again need to fund their own later-life care, whilst the freezing of the nil-rate band for Inheritance Tax and other changes announced last year will pull more estates into paying the tax.
Protection solutions like Vitality's Dementia and FrailCare cover - included automatically on Serious Illness Cover plans - or Whole of Life with LifestyleCare Cover can provide vital financial support to help your clients fund later life care.
Meanwhile, products like Whole of Life Cover written in trust are an increasingly viable way for your clients to protect a potential IHT liability, ringfence funds outside of their estate or even just pay for funeral costs.
4. Support at the moment of truth
The moment of truth for our industry ultimately remains the point at which a claim arises. This is the true test of the value of advice given and cover arranged, and clearly a time when them or their loved ones really need us the most.
On the one hand this is clearly about the payout provided and quality of the claim journey – something Vitality has worked tirelessly on over the last 12 months.
For Income Protection Cover, it's also about the additional support offered where appropriate to help the client recover and get back on their feet.
The unique enhanced Recovery Benefit included on Vitality's Income Protection provides access to rehabilitation support for commonly claimed-for conditions. Better still, it's powered by our private medical insurance expertise and clinical pathways.
For life insurance claims, it's also about recognising the need to offer more immediate financial support for the client's loved ones at a difficult time.
With our new Advanced Funeral Pledge, we'll advance a payment of up to £2,000 of our existing £10,000 funeral benefit, paid directly to the funeral director, as soon as we've received proof of death, to ensure immediate funeral costs are covered.
5. Don't compromise, Optimise
When presenting a protection recommendation for a client's needs, we often look to offer the most comprehensive, multi-benefit product solution, but then adjust cover downwards for affordability reasons.
The great thing about Vitality's unique Optimiser is that you can overcome this issue, by offering your clients the full range of cover they need, but at a lower premium than they'd otherwise have to pay. Meaning you don't have to compromise on the quality.
What's more, because Optimiser automatically unlocks full access to the Vitality Programme, it also helps to drive up higher engagement and deliver more of the immediate, tangible value I've mentioned already. In fact, last year alone Optimised members saved £43m through premium savings. This in turn drives down lapse rates, with Optimised members 46% less likely to cancel their plan.[2]
