simple products

So we heard from British Friendly recently that income protection (IP) sales are not benefiting from the gender change opportunity. Advisers have reported similar, but that life is tracking the opposite trend.

Simple products, commission removal on protection and universal applications were on the agenda yesterday in a Cover Forum panel debate.

Establishing a clear income replacement proposition in time for February's final Review of Simple Financial Products could be "unlikely", Swiss Re has said.

Unum is optimistic the Money Advice Service (MAS) will still be a strong contender to distribute the recent steering group-proposed simple products, despite recent troubles.

Building a simple income replacement product as outlined in the recent Review of Simple Financial Products may not be entirely possible, Aviva has said.

Exeter Family Friendly has said it will be a challenge for providers to establish simple product blueprints in line with the Review of Simple Financial Products proposals.

Unum was in talks yesterday with Carol Sergeant to bang the drum for more prominence on the workplace in the distribution of her steering group's simple income replacement concept.

Simple term life insurance and income replacement products have been proposed in an independent steering group report to encourage consumer engagement with the industry.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) stance on simplified advice means members are unlikely to develop propositions in the area.

The Financial Services Consumer Panel (FSCP) said it is "unreasonable" to expect consumers to understand complex financial products and services.