The Practical Protection Podcast

Hi everyone, we have Matt Rann back with us for the first time this season and we are taking a look outside of the UK. I speak to quite a lot of people who live or work abroad for extended periods of time and this can really reduce the options for arranging insurance with a UK insurer.It’s important to make sure that you know your permissions before advising anyone that is not resident in the UK. This will be a mix of your compliance and your professional indemnity insurance. As an example, at Cura I know that my permissions are that I can provide advice to someone that is a UK citizen and/or someone that has a financial liability within the UK. If someone doesn’t fall into these categories, there needs to be further questions about why they are wanting to use a UK advice firm, rather than someone in their country of residence.There’s a lot to consider!The key takeaways:Financial liabilities in the UK can range from mortgages, to dependent children, to parents that are dependent on care home fees, and more.Make sure that you have a clear procedure to check clients against UK sanctions.Two case studies of expat cover using an international insurer and a UK insurer.Next time Stephen Baldry from UnderwriteMe is set to join me to talk about the way that the advice market has been changing over recent years.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are fresh from the IPTF Income Protection Awareness week and I hope that it has given you some insights into having more IP conversations. I have Rich Horner from MetLife joining me in our latest episode where we reflect on IPAW 2023 and discuss ways that you can protect your clients that don’t sit within life insurance, critical illness cover and IP products.During our chat we talk about the importance of building your recommendations for a client and being clear about what you suggest. But equally it’s just as important to be documenting what you are not doing. Why haven’t you recommended income protection? Write it down and if you don’t have an answer, then think about if you are really doing the best for your client.The key takeaways:There are so many options for income protection that the market is quite complex, but it means that you have a much better ability to tailor products to your client.SSP is just over £3,000 to live on for 6 and a half months.Consumer research shows that the key things that 92% of parents are worried about are their children having broken bones or being diagnosed with cancer.Next time Matt Rann will be joining me for the first time in Season 8 and we will be talking about life insurance, critical illness and income protection for UK expats. There’s a lot to know in terms of compliance and also what you can and cannot place with UK insurers.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are back with Season 8 of the Practical Protection Podcast and today it is all about income protection. We have Jo Miller, Katie Crook-Davies and Andrew Wibberley joining us from the Income Protection Task Force. Their job is to promote income protection to consumers, encourage advisers to engage in income protection conversations more and work with insurers to improve our industry.Last year the IPTF held their Income Protection Awareness Week that was a resounding success. Each day had a different focus on income protection to better help advisers working in the mortgage, protection and wealth space. They are back with this year’s IPAW starting on the 18 September at 12 noon. To get us all ready for it we have been chatting all things income protection in the most recent episode.The key takeaways:Income protection sales are growing whilst life and critical illness cover policies are starting to slow down.Key areas for change are educating people at a younger age, the need for collaboration and the need for new perspectives in underwriting to reflect current social behaviour.Through adviser demand there are now more options for income protection than ever before.You can sign up for this year’s IPAW at the IPTF website and you will be able to claim up to 5 hours CPD for the week.Next time I will have Justin Harper with me from MetLife and we will be talking more about income protection. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are going through how kidney disease can influence a person’s options for  life insurance, critical illness and income protection. We are talking about the things that underwriters need to know about your client’s kidney disease to give you an accurate indication of terms.Matt is taking us through the connections between kidney function and blood pressure, how family history of polycystic kidney disease can affect applications and how a GP’s perspective of chronic kidney disease can be quite different to an underwriters.The key takeaways:Chronic kidney disease is measured upon ‘normal range’ of kidney function for people in their 20s up to their 40s.Insurers tend to use the standard readings for kidney functions of white european men, which can mean that the normal ranges for other ethnicities are not taken into account during underwriting.Two case studies of protection insurance arranged for people living with kidney disease.This is our last episode of Season 7 and we are now taking a break for summer 2023. We already have everything lined up for the rest of the year. If you ever think of something that you want us to cover please do get in touch and I will put it in the schedule.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are going through claims stats in our latest episode. Don’t worry we are not just going to be throwing a load of numbers at you, I also won’t be naming insurers either. We are talking through how much was been paid out in protection in 2022, the successful stats rate of different products, the biggest cause of claims and our thoughts on terminal illness cover too as the stats on these can be confusing.We will also be talking about the awful times when insurance claims don’t pay out in the protection space. This situation is never nice for anyone. There are times when things don’t go right, but a lot of the time when a claim isn’t paid there is a valid reason.The key takeaways:In 2022 £6.85bn was paid out in protection insurance claims.Terminal illness cover claims are a little tricky to monitor as the claims are not usually declined, they are postponed.Only 2% of claims were declined in 2022 across the market and more than of these were due to relevant disclosures not being included  in the original application.Next time Matt Rann will be back with me and we will be talking about kidney disease and what this means for your life insurance, critical illness and income protection options. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are getting towards the end of Season 7, do you have any thoughts of what you would like us to cover in Season 8?We are talking about a rare condition in this episode, one that can affect multiple organs in the body. Sarcoidosis affects 1-2 people in every 10,000 so it isn’t a condition that every adviser will come across during their work, but it’s important to know about it as terms could be anywhere from standard to a decline.The key takeaways:Sarcoidosis is an autoimmune condition where inflamed swollen tissue develops in the body, often in the lungs.In mild cases no treatment is needed, but more severe cases could need lung or heart transplants.A case study of arranging life insurance for someone that has experienced sarcoidosis.Next time Matt will be joining me again and we will be talking about claims statistics for life insurance and critical illness, what insurers have been paying out and why they sometimes don’t pay out.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are back with a bit of a different podcast episode this week. I’m joined by Roy McLoughlin and Lee Robertson and we are sharing our thoughts on how protection insurance is working right now. Regulators, government, financial advisers, protection education, we are not holding back on what we think.It’s incredibly interesting to hear from Lee that when he joined the finance sector over 30 years ago, the starting point of advice was protection insurance. That was what all the training focused on with the mindset that the very least you would do for someone is protection cover. Yet, here we are today with many of us trying to encourage people to write more protection. Why is that? What has changed to make protection seem like an add on rather than the core basis of financial planning?The key takeaways:Collaboration between advisers from all specialisms is developing the best consumer outcomes.There are clear barriers to improving the perception of protection insurance even within the advice world, that must be addressed.We talk about places where you can go to get support to improve your protection advice, through informal networks and training.Our focus this episode was to give you all an idea of something that is happening in the finance space that is exciting us, something that we would like to see changed and why, and then also something that we wish more people knew about the insurance world.Next time Matt will be back with me and we will be talking about arranging life insurance, critical illness and income protection for people that have sarcoidosis. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are back with Matt Rann and we are talking about lung cancer and protection insurance. There are 43k cases of lung cancer diagnosed in the UK each year. When it comes to life insurance, critical illness and income protection there are a lot of considerations given to the survival rate of people diagnosed with lung cancer, as unfortunately only 16% of cases are caught in the early stages.As well as lung cancer we go into a bit of a side tangent into debating terminal illness cover, which is a potential claim area for life insurance. We are fans of the intention of terminal illness cover, but we are both calling for a complete shake up of the way that it currently works.The key takeaways:72% of lung cancer cases are linked to smoking and the other 28% linked to environmental factorsIf a person has had lung cancer and is a smoker their cover will need to be place with specialist insurersMatt takes us through what the staging and grading of lung cancer means, as this is an essential part of the underwriting decision processNext time we have Roy back with us and Lee Robertson from Octomembers. We will be sharing some of our musings from the finance world. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

*** Trigger Warning ***Hi everyone, we are back with quite a change of episode today to the usual content. I am talking with Lauren Garrett from the SEA Charity, an organisation that is dedicated to helping people that have experienced economic abuse.Listening to what Lauren has to share is really eye opening as to the awful situations people can find themselves in and remember this isn’t something that just happens, it often happens gradually. There is no specific person that can be affected by this, anyone can be.The key takeaways:Financial abuse falls within economic abuse, it is just one aspect of what a person can experience.As advisers there is a duty upon us to try and prevent economic abuse and there’s some tips on how to do thisThere is a huge call for the insurance worlds to modernise to the need for separation clauses as standard and flexibility of Trusts, to ensure that victims of economic abuse are not disadvantagedNext time Matt Rann will be back with me and we will be talking about lung cancer and what this means for your life insurance, critical illness and income protection options. Take a look at these extra pieces from SEA:Consumer Duty BriefingInsurance and Economic AbuseRemember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are back with a health related podcast after our little peak at pilots insurance last time. In the latest episode we are looking at sickle cell and how having this condition can potentially affect the options a person has for things like life insurance.Sickle cell is an inherited condition that can lead to some health complications and potentially a lower life expectancy. When we are supporting our clients that are living with this condition it is essential that we know the right questions to ask, to find the right insurer for them as soon as possible.The key takeaways:Insurers will want to know what type of sickle cell disease the person has and if there have been any complications such as symptoms in the eyes and any crises.Options for critical illness cover and income protection can be quite limited for people that have been diagnosed with sickle cell disease.Someone that carries the sickle cell gene but does not have the condition, should not have difficulty in arranging life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection.Next time I will be speaking with the SEA Charity about financial abuse and what we can do as advisers to potentially spot it and prevent it. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we have been seeing more enquiries from pilots about the types of insurances that they can have. It’s a real mix of options especially when you look at commercial, test, helicopter and military pilots.Pilots have usually looked at loss of license insurance before and this is a good policy, but more and more are starting to see the benefits of income protection as an alternative. As with anything like this there are pros and cons to both and I’m talking about all these options in this episode.The key takeaways:You can see significant differences for terms on life insurance and critical illness cover if the flying is part of a person’s occupation or their hobby.Options for income protection massively differ between the types of pilot.A case study of arranging income protection for a commercial pilot.Next time Matt Rann is going to be back with me and we are going to be talking about how to access insurance when you have sickle cell disease. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, I am back with Matt Rann and we are talking about ovarian cancer. We are talking about what underwriters need to assess a protection insurance application, the treatments that can sometimes help you to understand how strong the cancer was and how family medical history can play a part in terms offered.Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed in women that are aged 50 or over, but it can be diagnosed at any age. It’s often not found quickly as the symptoms can be quite general and Matt gives a really clear example of symptoms that can indicate it’s best to go speak with a GP for a check up.The key takeaways:You must know the staging and grading of the cancer, to get a clear indication of terms from the insurer.Ovarian cancer can potentially be linked to other conditions such as a high BMI, the BRCA gene, endometriosis, diabetes, breast and bowel cancer.A case study of a woman in her 40s that was arranged life insurance after ovarian cancer.We have a number of exciting episodes coming up including deep dives into sickle cell anaemia, sarcoidosis, claims and the incredibly important topic of economic abuse.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we have Charlotte Rogers joining us in our latest episode to talk about the value of Trusts. Charlotte has an incredibly moving story to share about how her life was turned upside down by a life insurance policy that wasn’t written into Trust.A Trust is designed to get the insurance payout to intended beneficiary of the policy. A key question for any adviser who doesn’t put a life insurance policy into Trust is, if you don’t know the beneficiary then is there any need for life insurance?The key takeaways:Only 20% of life insurance policies are written into Trust in the UKTrusts aren’t just for people that are single or co-habiting, married people can need them too.The ability to write life insurance into Trust easily differs significantly between insurersNext time we will have an episode focused upon value added benefits and how important and life changing these can be. These are non-contractual extras that UK insurers offer to their protection insurance customers and it can range from mental health support, to GP appointments right through to second medical opinions from experts in your condition.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, in our latest episode I have Conor D’Arcy Head of Research and Policy at the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute joining me. They have recently published a report about their findings into how insurance and mental health are mixing together.Titled the ‘Written Off? report the institute have highlighted where things are not necessarily working well for consumers that are wanting to get insurance, when they have a mental health condition.The key takeaways:They found that someone with mental health can potentially pay up to 27x the base premium for travel insurance3 in 10 respondents did not disclose their mental health condition to insurersThe inability to get insurance at an affordable price can further exacerbate mental health symptoms and lead to a lack of financial securityThe protection insurance industry has made significant improvements in terms of mental health underwriting over the years. I have personally experienced this from when I first took out my insurances in 2010, compared to my applications in the last few years and even recently. But, the research shows that there is still a lot of distrust in the insurance world over how decisions are made and the fairness of decisions. I know many underwriters that make incredibly fair decisions of protection insurance applications detailing mental health. It’s our job to make sure that we are getting the message out to the public and organisations like the MMHPI about the good work that is being done. There may not always be solutions that all parties are happy with, but open and transparent discussions are key to us changing the way that the insurance sector is viewed.Next time I will we will have Charlotte Rogers joining us, she is an adviser that is incredibly passionate about Trusts and making sure people know what can go wrong if they’re not in place. Tune in to hear her personal story and how it’s made her determined to have Trusts as a key part part of her advice.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we have Matt Rann back with us for the first time in Season 7 and we are focusing upon family medical history and how this can impact insurance applications.  There are lots of things to know in terms of what you need to tell insurers about your family medical history and what you don’t need to tell them too.We are taking a look at the most common medical conditions that can lead to a rating or exclusion if someone has a relative that has a condition that the insurer asks about. When we say family medical history this is just the blood related parents and siblings, to the best of the applicants knowledge.The key takeaways:A person with 1 parent that has type 2 diabetes has a 40% chance of developing the condition, if 2 parents have type 2 diabetes the risk increases to 70%Someone with a family medical history of colon cancer diagnosed under the age of 50, will generally see a minimum +50% rating for critical illness coverThe BRCA gene is linked to increased breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and ovarian cancer, as well as othersNext time I will be hosting an episode with Conor D’Arcy who is Head of Research and Policy at the Money and Mental Health Organisation. We will be talking about the findings in their recent report about how mental health and insurance are working (or not working) together..Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we have a brilliant inbetweenysode for you with some updates to insurance options for people living with HIV. It has been a long time coming but the past 3 years have seen big steps being made to improve options for protection insurance for people that have a diagnosis of HIV.The key takeaways:There are sometimes options for standard rates for life insurance, for people living with HIV.Personal critical illness cover and income protection for people living with HIV is here!Group insurance can often offer valuable protection insurance without the need for medical underwriting at application or point of claim for life insurance and income protection, up to specific free medical underwriting limits.Next time I will be be back with Matt Rann and we will be talking about family medical history, why it’s so important in protection insurance applications and why it’s different for men and women.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are back a little later than usual with the second episode of Season 7. Don’t worry I’m going to make up for it with an inbetweenysode soon. We have Paul Roberts from CIEXpert joining us on this episode to talk about critical illness cover and how it has changed since it became available in the UK 40 years ago.We are talking about the numbers race with insurers competing to have the highest number of conditions offered, partial payments, children’s cover and the big risks that can come from replacing an existing critical illness policy with a new one.The key takeaways:The number of conditions covered in a critical illness contract isn’t a clear indicator of quality, take a close look at claim definitions.Standalone critical illness cover comes with a survivability clause, if the person dies from the condition within a certain period of time, the policy will not pay out.When you replace a critical illness policy with a new one, you need to make sure that you know the risks of doing so.Next time I will be hosting a mini episode where I talk about updates to HIV underwriting within the UK. The last time I did a HIV focused episode was in June 2020 and you will be surprised by how much has changed.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, it’s the start of Season 7 and we have an episode different to any other we have done so far. Setul Mehta is taking over as guest host and it is myself and Roy that are in the spotlight, being quizzed about our take on insurance advice and the way the industry is working.We are talking about objection handling, decline conversations, vulnerable clients, stepping outside of comfort zones and more. The key takeaways:Building confidence in advising on protection insurance.Ways to change your communications to support people with protected characteristics.Our views on mandating protection insurance qualifications.Next time we are going to be doing an episode upon family medical history and how this can influence protection insurance applications. Matt Rann will be back with me and if you have any specific conditions that you would like us to focus on, please get in touch by the 20 January and we will include it for you.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are kicking off the New Year with a masterclass in advising in critical illness cover. Alan Knowles from Cura Financial Services is joining us to take us through some case studies of arranging critical illness cover for people with disclosures that can lead to exclusions and premium increases on critical illness cover.The key takeaways:A case study of arranging critical illness cover for someone living with multiple sclerosis.A case study of arranging critical illness cover for someone having experienced a strong mental health history.A case study of helping a person claim on a critical illness cover when they had been told that they were not eligible too.Next time we have the start of season 7 upon us and an episode format that I’m quite excited by. For the first time myself and Roy will become the interviewees, with Setul Mehta joining us as a guest host. This is the first time that we will be doing this and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out, let us know what you think.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are talking about value added benefits that often come with protection insurance policies. Be it access to remote GPs, second medical opinion services, mental health support or more, these extras can make an insurer really standout as a good place for your clients.In this episode we are looking at how value added benefits work during a policy, at the point of a claim and after. Are they the new area of competition for insurers? What’s the reason behind offering them? Within the industry we can clearly see the positives of value adds, but we are often communication with consumers that are cynical of the insurance world and we should be prepared for answering challenges that we might face.The key takeaways:Watch how you write up value added benefits in your recommendations, remember that they are non-contractual!Value added benefits can help identify issues early so that people can get treatment more quickly and hopefully stop illnesses from becoming too severe.These benefits can reduce strain on the NHS by giving people access to medical professionals, but don’t confuse it with private medical insurance.Next time we have Alan Knowles joining us to do another one of his masterclasses this time on how to provide critical illness cover advice. We will be going through case studies to give you tips on how to get the best options for critical illness cover for your clients.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are talking about what is happening in the mortgage world right now, trying to make sense of things in this ever changing economy in the UK. If like me you are aware of mortgages and know advisers in this space, you might see lots of different messages on social media. Some say things are going to be a disaster, others are saying that what we are seeing is just a blip and it will all sort itself out soon.In this episode we have Martin Stewart joining us from London Money, one of the key mortgage adviser firms in the UK. He is here to give us his insight of what the mortgage market is doing, how it has changed over the years and his thoughts over how mortgage and protection insurance go hand in hand. A clear view from all of us is that people are not putting enough financial protection in place to cope with shocks that we can all face in life.The key takeaways:Consumers are asking us questions that for an adviser seem simple, which shows that we are not educating people right.The average person in the UK has 3 weeks of savings that they can live on, if they are ill and unable to work. People need the safety net of protection insurance as the NHS and state benefits in the UK are not a certainty.Next time we have Matt Rann back with us and we are going to be talking about value added services with protection insurance. We are going to be looking at what they are, why they are seen as a positive development for insurers and consumers alike, and the role they can play at the point of a claim.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

S6 Ep 6 -  High Net WorthHi everyone, we are back with Matt Rann and talking about high net worth protection insurance applications. We are talking about what makes a case considered to be high net worth and how advisers and underwriters might classify these differently. We are having a chat about joint life second death insurance, gift planning and what a retrocessionaire is.The key takeaways:High net worth clients do not always mean high net worth policies.Most insurers have large case teams that typically handle policies with value over £1m. Keep an eye out for the gifting of terminal illness payouts if you have done a policy for gift or IHT planning.Next time we have Martin Stewart joining us from the London Money group. He is going to be talking about the mortgage market, why protection insurance is more important than ever, plus his question about why do we need the FCA Consumer Duty principle, surely we’ve all been doing these things already?Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we have our first ever second IBTS of the podcast in one season and with very good reason! We have just seen the launch of the AMI Protection Viewpoint report of 2022 and in this episode we have Senior Policy Adviser, Stacy Penn, with us to talk through the findings of this report.We are talking about adapting approaches in your sales techniques to bring protection right The key takeaways:Consumer Duty requirements are not about reinventing the wheel, it’s making sure that we are empowering customers to make the right decisions.Advising on protection insurance isn’t just about protecting the client, it’s making sure that you are also protecting your business by doing a complete job for their financial security. As an industry we need to do more to encourage younger generations to see the value of protection, especially income protection.You can read the full report here https://www.a-m-i.org.uk/knowledge-centre/viewpoint/AMI Viewpoint is consumer and adviser research involving 3,000 UK adults and 254 IFAs and mortgage advisers.Next time we have Matt Rann back with us and we are going to be talking about high net worth protection insurance. We have a good chat about how ‘jumbo’ insurances can result in different underwriting outcomes than lower sum assured cases.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we have Ruth Gilbert with us in the latest episode of the podcast and we are talking about Trusts. Trusts are a key part of a protection insurance recommendation and there’s a lot to know. There are different types, what do you do with the gifting of a terminal illness payout, how do things change when the policies are being used for IHT and gift planning.We talk about who can be trustees on a policy and the difficulties that can happen if the wrong person is picked. Traditionally Trusts have been positioned as being a way to ringfence claims from IHT, but Ruth shares that less than 5% of deaths in the UK result in an IHT liability. The key takeaways:1 in 3 people are risking their insurance payout without a Trust, if they are not marriedBeneficiary nominations that are currently available with Guardian and Royal London, are quick and simple online, there’s no reason not to do them.Trusts mean that an insurance claim is paid more quickly and to the intended people, without having to wait for probate.Next time Matt Rann is back with me and we are going to be talking about high net worth clients and how protection insurance underwriting can change as we start to look at higher value policies.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we are back with Matt Rann talking about high cholesterol and how it can influence insurance applications. Last year the NHS shared that 6 out of 10 adults have high cholesterol and the scary thing is that many people are completely unaware of it. High cholesterol often comes hand in hand with other conditions and it is picked up, but there are no specific symptoms of high cholesterol which can mean that a lot of damage can be done before someone realises that they have it.The key takeaways:High cholesterol is linked to an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and vascular dementia.Broadly speaking for protection insurance high cholesterol under 5 is seen as ok, and over 6 is seen as high. This isn’t set in stone!Familial hypercholesterolaemia can have quite an influence on the insurance options that are available to people.Next time we have Ruth Gilbert with us who will be talking about Trusts and the Payout Planner that is available with some insurers. This is sure to be another area that will be seen as a key example of you doing right by your customer, when it comes to the Consumer Duty principle.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.

Hi everyone, we have Alain Desmier from Contact State with us in the latest practical protection podcast. Alain is sharing his insights into consumer consent, data and the thing we are hearing about a lot at the moment, the FCA Consumer Duty Principle.Alain takes us through his time working in lead generation and his new focus of improving industry standards when it comes to consumer data and consent. He has some pretty shocking statistics to share about how much cold calling happens in the UK and we talk about how this often targets the vulnerable and elderly, but it can catch any of us out.The key takeaways:The FCA Consumer Duty principle will be very clear that you must have oversight of where leads are coming from.To improve consumer data standards we must all work together: lead generators, advisers and insurers.Ignoring consumer data rules can lead to hefty fines! From chatting with Alain it’s clear that consumer data and the journey that it goes on, if you are buying leads, is going to gain more and more attention. It’s not something to try and stick a patch on and hope that it will be alright, this is just the start of how firms are going to need to prove that they are handling client data responsibly.Next time Matt Rann is back and we are going to be talking about high cholesterol and what that can mean for insurance, especially when we factor in long-term health complications.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone,  we have an inbetweenysode for you with Sue Clarkson, MD of Coach House Communications. She has been doing research for Legal & General’s Group Protection arm, to analyse how much small to medium enterprises are engaging, or want to engage, with employee wellbeing practices.We are talking about culture, storytelling and many other aspects of communication, with Sue sharing her new podcast series of 6 episodes to give you insights in this area. They’re about 15 minutes long and involve interviews with SME owners, a charity and more.  Plus there is a ‘Better Wellbeing Competition’ with Legal & General for two SMEs to win a day’s worth of internal communications consultancy with Sue.The key takeaways:Culture engagement and communications of employee wellbeing are not always the skillset of the entrepreneurs that set up small companies.SMEs are overwhelmed and many owners are wearing multiple hats to make the business work. Having a robust employee wellbeing programme can help to manage the culture of the organisation.L&G have completed their Wellbeing at Work barometer and found that 2 in 5 SME’s talk to advisers about employee wellbeing, the benefits are being seen we now need to focus on engaging the other 3/5! Next time Alain Desmier is joining us from Contact State to talk about lead generation, consumer consent online and the upcoming Consumer Duty.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone,  it feels great to be getting back into the swing of things with the podcast. The summer break was lovely and essential so that you didn’t hear the screaming banshee noises from my three kids in the background, but it’s nice to be getting back to normal.In our latest podcast Matt Rann has joined me to talk about organ donations. With Organ donation week we felt that it was a good idea to have a focus upon how giving or receiving an organ donation can influence a protection insurance application. We are talking about technical medical terms that can help you to do your research thoroughly to get your client covered.The key takeaways:It can be tricky to get personal life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection after receiving an organ donation.For kidney transplants there are at least 6 key pieces of information that you need, to be able to research the market.There is a big difference in underwriting outcomes if a person was a donor or someone that has received a donation.  We have quite a good discussion about per mille ratings and how insurers might use this to determine the price of the policy. We also have a chat about how each insurer does these ratings differently, so it becomes quite a barrel of laughs to try and figure out what the potential cost will be.Next time Sue Clarkson is joining us to talk about SMEs and employee benefits, and how insurance can be a key asset for UK firms.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, we are on season 6 of the Practical Protection Podcast after a lovely break for the summer of 2022. We are feeling lovely and refreshed, ready for more industry insights and underwriting for you. We have Tom Baigrie from LifeSearch with us for this first episode talking about the campaigning that he has done over the past 20 years, to improve consumer outcomes. Tom takes us through some of the most recent projects he is taking on including his passion to embed mystery shoppers into the analysis of broker firms and his thoughts on protection insurance and the upcoming FCA Consumer Duty, plus more.The key takeaways:Marketing is not working, the protection market is not growing.Protection isn’t easy if you’re not doing it every day.We need to build networks where protection brokers are seen as specialists that other advisers are able to reach out to, and to show the worth of protection. We all agree on a key theme that we must work together as an industry to make change. It can’t just be advisers making efforts, and it can’t just be insurers either, it is working together that will lead to better customer outcomes. Something that is already being proven through the Protection Distributors Group, Income Protection Taskforce and the Access to Insurance working groups.Next time Matt Rann is back with me and we are chatting about arranging protection insurance for people that have given or received an organ donation.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, we are on the final episode of Season 5 of the podcast. We are going to be taking a break over summer as we all have little kids that we are going to manically trying to wrangle during the summer holidays. We will be back in September with Season 6.We have some super fun guests on our podcast episode today. Grace, Theodore, Sophia, Alexander, Kaydee, Kara and Zachary. The Cura Kids! It always stands out to me that the average reading age in the UK is that of a 9 year old. So does what we say to people and the documents that we give them make sense?The kids range from age 4 to 12. I’ve done this specifically so that we get the older ones that are almost 8 through to 12, to give us a really good idea of how the average person views our terminology. The ones under 8 are here for, let’s face it, the cuteness factor.This episode is not a super long one, I didn’t want to overwhelm the kids and there is a limit as to how much I could say insurance jargon to them without it getting super super boring. I made sure that I told them all how brilliant they were doing, that they had the brilliant job of being teachers for once, telling us adults where we are getting it wrong and being too confusing.The key takeaways:The average reading age in the UK is that of a 9 year old, none of our guests were able to understand our technical jargon.The one thing that the kids got close to getting ‘right’ was what a policy lapsing means.That when we use terms like serious or critical illness the kids did wonder about cancer (included in CIC/SIC contracts) but they also thought covid too (not included in CIC/SIC contracts). I appreciate that this was not a scientific experiment but what I can share is that out of the older children taking part they are all familiar with very serious medical conditions in their close family members. As an example my dad has Parkinsons and isn’t particularly well, my children see him most days and they didn’t think of this when I asked them about critical or serious illnesses. Others have experienced close family members with cancers and strokes. Maybe sometimes when we experience something and we see people living with a condition or recovering from it it can become almost normalised, so we don’t then see it as something out of the ordinary. It brings an extra dynamic to wondering if the reason that critical illness and income protection is sold so much less than life insurance, is because some health conditions now feel as if they are part and parcel of life.We are back in September for Season 6 of the podcast. I am so pleased with how the podcast is being seen as a useful resource by advisers. I even spoke with a compliance consultant recently who said that she’d heard of me because one of the firms she takes cares of uses us for their IDD CPD.So far we are at:A bank over 52 hours CPDOver 6,000 unique listenersOver 13,000 downloadsWe’ve issued over 1,200 CPD certificates, that’s over 1,000 hours of CPD!Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, we are getting towards the end of Season 5 of the Practical Protection Podcast. In our penultimate episode we are focusing on schizophrenia and how it is often a misunderstood condition. There is a bit of a debate over the statistics, as you will hear me and Matt go through.The condition can be linked to genetics, but it can also be the result of experiencing a traumatic event. It is mostly diagnosed within cities and in some ethnic minorities too. Experiencing schizophrenia is not having multiple personalities and you might find that some people feel very uncomfortable using the term schizophrenia, as there is quite a lot of stigma surrounding the name.I hope that by seeing the statistic below you will see that this isn’t some condition that is far removed from us, that many of us easily speak to well over 100 clients, so the chances are that we will speak to someone at some point that has experienced this. Schizophrenia is a long term health condition but it is possible in some cases to recover from it.The key takeaways:It is estimated that approximately 1 in 100 people experience schizophrenia.Two case studies of arranging life insurance for people living with schizophrenia.Why it can be difficult to arrange income protection, even with a mental health exclusion on the policy claims set.Next time we have a very special treat for you all on the podcast, it was super fun to record with our unique guests. As the final episode of Season 5 before our summer break, I hope that you tune in and find it as useful as I did.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, we have a brand new podcast episode where I am speaking to Tim Smith of Hannover Re about reinsurance and how it mixes with the wider insurance sector. As a protection insurance adviser I found it really weird to suddenly realise that there is an insurer that backs the insurers that I arrange policies with. Granted this was quite a while ago now, but it was a little bit after I started my career that this was pointed out to me. Coming from a purely protection insurance space and not being an adviser as my starting job, I only learned about this once I started to experience quite strong premium loadings for clients. We would challenge decisions and the insurers would say, sorry it’s what the reinsurers are telling us to do.I think that there are probably quite a few people who don’t understand how reinsurers and insurers work, both from within our industry and outside of it too. Quite often I explain it to clients and I’ve yet to meet one who knew about this interplay already.The key takeaways:Reinsurers set the core underwriting manuals that insurers then use to build their own philosophies.Reinsurers are a vital part of the insurance industry as they hold the majority of the financial risk, enabling insurers to offer protection insurance to more and more people.Risk pooling in group, genetics and potentially socio-economic groupings are key areas for ongoing debate.Next time Matt Rann will be joining me and will be talking about getting insurance when you have schizophrenia.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

To follow.

Hi everyone, in the latest podcast episode I am talking about arranging protection insurance for people that are in the Armed Forces. When we think about the Armed Forces it’s probably quite clear as to the risks that insurers are worried about. The main one is of course that there is a much higher risk of dying than there is for someone that is sat at a desk all day. But it isn’t as simple as that. Yes, someone that is actively deployed to a warzone, or has high risk duties like bomb disposal, is at more of an immediate risk of danger. There are however many people in the Armed Forces who are not in this position, they are not under active deployment and they might in fact be doing a desk based job.Critical illness cover is a really interesting area too, with premium ratings and exclusions sometimes added to policies. Income protection can be even more interesting especially when you consider the employment benefits that you get from working in the Armed Forces.The key takeaways:Breakdowns of how per mille loadings work and the types of exclusions that might be put on critical illness cover.Make sure you tell your clients about the JPAF0100 form, it’s going to save them a lot of money!Two case study clients getting life insurance and income protection for armed forces personnel.Next time Roy is back with me and we are being joined by Tim Smith from Hannover Re. He will be talking to us about how reinsurers fit into the protection insurance sector, the differences between personal and group underwriting, risk pooling and access to insurance.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, today we have Keith Richards from The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce with me to talk about financial vulnerability and what we need to do as an industry to address this.The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce is a professional body that has been set up to help consumers and advisers better understand what vulnerabilities are, and the good practices that should be followed to address these concerns. They have a Charter that contains 9 statements that members are expected to actively promote and support. Many firms are unsure of how to support vulnerable clients, but they may well already be doing so and just haven’t had the opportunity to recognise and write down what they are doing.The key takeaways:Last year £137 billion was lost to financial fraud in the UK.Everyone is financially vulnerable now and/or in the future.Signposting can be a key part of supporting your vulnerable clients.In the next episode I’ll be talking about insurance and the Armed Forces. Sometimes getting the insurance is quite straightforward, other times it can be pretty tricky. There will be some interesting case studies for you to hear about too.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, Matt Rann is back with us this week and we are talking about Huntington’s disease. This is a genetic condition that lowers life expectancy and is often a very difficult diagnosis to come to terms with.We talk about genetic and predictive testing, what does and doesn’t need to be said to insurers, and why Huntington’s is not listed as a claimable condition in most critical illness contracts. Many people that are diagnosed with Huntington’s will unfortunately pass away within 20 years of diagnosis, and as well as this being a significant reality to face, it also means that accessing insurance within the standard market can become quite limited.The key takeaways:Huntington’s is usually diagnosed between the ages of 30 and 50.There is a big difference between diagnostic and predictive testing for Huntington’s and this is crucial to know when applying for insurance.Two case studies of arranging life insurance for people that have a family history of Huntington’s disease, and one also had the positive gene for Huntington’s too.Next time I have Keith Richards from The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce. The episode will focus upon the need for advisers to be able to spot vulnerability, from many different angles, to ensure that clients are truly looked after. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, Roy McLoughlin is back, and this time we have Catherine Betley with us from Grief Chat. Grief Chat is an organisation that offers anonymous access to trained counsellors through webchat services, to help people through difficult times. Grief is a horrible thing to experience and it’s important that we are aware that there might never be acceptance of the event that has caused grief, but there can be ways to accommodate it.You might wonder why the need for dedicated grief services are needed, and it becomes much clearer when Catherine says they had nearly 50k conversations in 2021. That is approximately 136 grief support conversations for every day of last year.The key takeaways:It’s ok to not know what to say to someone experiencing grief, the important thing is to say something, show that someone cares.Grief counselling is different to mental health support. Around 40% of Grief Chat’s webchat conversations happen with men, which is much higher than other non-anonymous routes.Next time I have Matt Rann back with me and we are going to be chatting about Huntington’s and how this diagnosis can affect insurance applications. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, Matt is once again in the co-host seat alongside me this week and this episode is somewhat of a personal one. We discussed my health conditions and why they have stopped me from getting personal income protection. Matt provides an honest view on how an underwriter will look at each of these conditions.Since my early teens, I have been diagnosed with a number of health conditions, all of which I’m quite open about. I’ve made the decision to talk openly about them in the hope that this might challenge people's assumptions about the conditions and what they might mean for a person. An interesting point that was raised is that most claims for income protection are related to the back or mental health, and therefore this is taken into account when underwriters make their decisions.The key takeaways:Hypermobility, mental health and autism can influence access to income protection.Insurers are trying to improve options to accessing income protection if you have a mental health condition.Group insurance is a great way to get access to income protection, often with a good level that has no exclusions. Next time I have Roy McLoughlin back with me and we are talking to Catherine Betley from Grief Chat. The episode will focus upon the need for clear access to trained counsellors to help people if they or a loved one have needed to make an insurance claim. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, Matt Rann is back, hosting alongside me and this time we are talking about testicular cancer. The stats show that 91% of people that are diagnosed with testicular cancer recover from the condition. It was really interesting to learn that there is no known cause of testicular cancer, but there is thought to be a link between the cancer and undescended testes.For advisers it’s important to know that speaking about testicular cancer can be an incredibly personal conversation. It could be that the client you speak with has in a sense moved on from their diagnosis, and has no ongoing complications from the cancer. For others, they might have needed to have both testicles removed and lost the chance to start a family, which could have led to some mental health considerations. As with any client and situation, it’s essential to treat them as an individual and speak sensitively about their circumstances.The key takeaways:There are 6 cases of testicular cancer diagnosed every day in the UK.When a cancer is diagnosed there is usually a staging and grading given for the tumour. For testicular cancer there are two staging and gradings that are given.The prime age for diagnosis is 30-34 years old, this is not an ‘old’ person’s condition.Next time I have Matt Rann back with me and we are doing something a bit quirky. I hope you like it, it could be a bit emotional for me, but I think it is really important to do. Watch this space! Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, in the latest podcast episode we have Kevin Carr from Carr Consulting joining me and Roy McLoughlin. We are talking about public relations, what it is, how it can work for you, and the benefits that you can get from raising your profile within the industry.Kevin has been a part of the finance world for many years now, first starting at Nationwide advising on mortgages, leading onto his role as an adviser at LifeSearch that quickly changed to include PR work. Kevin was drawn to PR as he found that speaking with journalists led to him being featured in the press, which then resulted in clients ringing up wanting to chat to him for advice. PR isn’t just about the press, there are so many ways that you can build your profile in a way that matches what you want and need to support your career.The key takeaways:“Plane lands safely is not new”. We are all doing great work but simply doing our jobs isn’t enough to get a feature in the press.It is a myth that the press only feature negative insurance stories.Marketing is a part of your PR strategy, so even if you don’t think you are doing PR, you are.Next time I have Matt Rann back with me and we are going to be discussing testicular cancer and insurance. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, Matt Rann is back with me and we are talking about eating disorders. There are quite a few conditions that fall under the umbrella of eating disorders and it’s important to know how to approach these conversations in a sensitive manner, as it will lead most insurers to start asking a lot of in-depth mental health questions.With it being Eating Disorder Awareness Week we felt that this episode was a key one to do. In fact, on Wednesday of this week I was tagged in a twitter thread of someone that was saying they have an eating disorder and are fed up with insurers and how they make people feel. I have of course reached out and we are now chatting about the next steps that they can take.The key takeaways:There are between 1.25 and 3.4 million people living with an eating disorder in the UK.Out of all of the psychiatric disorders, the highest death rates are linked to eating disorders.A case study of a man accessing insurance after living with bulimia.Next time I have Roy McLoughlin and Kevin Carr joining me and we are going to be talking about public relations and insurance. We will be talking about negative news stories, the role of PR in improving our industry and our companies, awards, and the biggest problems that our sector is facing right now. Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, we have had five episodes of mental health, diving into how each stage of the insurance journey can have a specific link to mental health. This isn’t just people that already have a mental health condition, but also people that are in a very vulnerable situation that might find that things are hard to cope with. Go back and check them out! In this session I am talking about cervical cancer with Matt Rann and we are discussing the common causes of this cancer, the types of questions that insurers will ask for protection insurance applications and the potential outcomes.The key takeaways:There are close to nine cases of cervical cancer diagnosed each day in the UK.The types of treatment that may have been done to remove the cancer.A case study of a woman getting life insurance after having cervical cancer.Next time Matt is joining me again and we are going to be talking about eating disorders and how they are assessed by insurers.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, this is the final episode of the Mental Health in Life Insurance week, a recording of the webinar held by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. In this webinar Kathryn, Lisa Balboa (Hannover Re) and Fraser Ballantine (Zurich), all came together to talk with colleagues about mental health and insurance. The session was hosted by John Brazier from Cover magazine and attendees included reinsurers, insurers and charity members.We explore everything from application questions, granular modelling, risk analysis, and how all of this can come across and feel to someone that is living with a mental health condition and wanting insurance.The key takeaways:We need more data! To make positive change for accessing insurance when you have a mental health condition, actuaries need data to analyse, potentially even positive lifestyle factors e.g. sleep patterns, exercise habits, etc.Mental health questions and support are far better than they used to be, but there is still a long way to go.How pricing is calculated for individuals living with specific mental health conditions.Next time I have Matt Rann back with me and we are talking about cervical cancer. It is great to have Matt back for his first episode of 2022 helping us to deep dive into how underwriting works.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, this is the fourth episode of our Mental Health in Life Insurance week. So far this week we have gone through why someone may need or want insurance, how they can get it, the things that lead insurers to make decisions over what can be available to someone, and we are now at the point where everything comes together for the whole point of this: the claim.In this episode we talk about what happens in terms of support for people living with a mental health condition when they make a claim on insurance, and more importantly the extra support they can access from the policy even if they don’t make a claim. We also talk about how mental health needs to be considered with every claim, as these are times when people are often at their most vulnerable.The key takeaways:Insurers now often offer extra support services for people that have policies with them e.g. mental health support lines, access to remote GPs, fitness and nutrition plans.Mental health causes a large amount of income protection claims and insurers partner with specialist firms to help people that are struggling to work.Mental health support can be accessed by policyholders but it’s important to be aware that there are times that this service will not be the most appropriate option.The next episode of the podcast is going to be a bit different. We are hosting a webinar to round off this mental health in life insurance week, and the audio from it will be added as our next episode. I hope that you have found our walkthrough of insurance and mental health useful.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, this is the third episode of our Mental Health in Life Insurance week. We have quite an unusual episode today, in that we have an adviser, actuary and underwriter all sat together to talk about insurance. It’s not often that you get such a broad insight of the industry all in one place.We are talking about how insurers decide who can have what insurance and what price it will be. Actuaries take a look at huge amounts of general population data and analyse this to help them determine what might happen to these people in the future. They use data to produce statistics about how likely it is that person A that is X years old, will become seriously ill or die. It is then the role of the underwriting developers to look at this data and decide what risks an insurer can and cannot take. For mental health this could be looking at the data on mild anxiety and deciding that the insurer can accept someone that lives with this at ‘normal’ terms (the basic premium). Or it might be that they look at data that shows that some conditions are linked to a statistically higher risk of ill health or death, with the decision to then charge a higher premium to.The key takeaways:Insurers take broad population studies to understand how certain circumstances influence a person’s chance of being seriously ill or dying. This is then used to form many of their decisions, but they will also do what they can to listen to individual circumstances.An explanation as to why bipolar disorder is a condition that usually results in an increased premium for life insurance, and leads to some difficulty in getting income protection cover.A clear example of how a premium might be increased for life insurance, due to a mental health condition. Without going into a deep data chat this episode helps us to see how insurers come to their decisions, based upon the way that the industry works at the moment, and upon the data that is available now. It’s always important to remember that underwriters are regularly reviewing what an insurer offers, and what is or is not available today, could change tomorrow. We have Vanessa Sallows (Legal & General) and Monica Garcia (Monica Garcia Consulting) with us in our podcast tomorrow to discuss what mental health support there is for insurance policyholders before, during and after a claim.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, this is the second episode of our Mental Health in Life Insurance week. Today is all about how people can go about getting insurance. We are taking a look at advised and non-advised routes, as well as comparison sites. It’s important to understand that no matter what we might think is the best route for someone, each of these routes can offer something different that may be what is a helpful first step to getting insurance.We are talking to Phil Jeynes from Reassured, Alan Knowles from Cura Financial Services and Neal Cross from MoneySupermarket for their insights.The key takeaways:People living with mental health conditions might not feel comfortable talking to someone about their medical history.Firms should adapt their communications and link with specialist partners, to support people that are living with mental health, to access insurance in a way that suits them best.There is work being done to encourage the use of iGPRs to better support insurance application underwriting times, to help reduce some of the worry that can potentially build during this time.Within the insurance world there can be a mindset that when applying for insurance it is advised vs non-advised vs price comparison site. In this episode we are stepping away from any kind of judgement of how someone chooses to get insurance, and focusing upon how each of these approaches to getting insurance, helps different people in different ways. Tomorrow we are going to be talking with Lisa Balboa (Hannover Re) and Fraser Ballantine (Zurich) about how underwriting decisions are made by insurers.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, this is the first episode of our Mental Health in Life Insurance week. This week we are taking a deep dive into how mental health and insurance mix, why someone might need insurance, how they can get it, why insurers make certain decisions and what happens if you need to make a claim.We have a lot of industry experts joining us this week and we start today with Lynn Beattie aka Mrs Mummypenny. Lynn is a finance expert and is always looking for the best ways to manage money, to protect her financial future and also make sure that anything she is paying for is worth it.The key takeaways:Applying for insurance is complicated, even for someone that works within finances, the wording is confusing and knowing where to turn to for help is hard. It can be worrying to know how much mental health will and won’t affect insurance applications and how insurers will view your health.The relief from knowing that you have insurance in place to protect your income and to protect your family if you die, is priceless.This episode is part of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Mental Health Working Group’s efforts to improve access to insurance for people living with mental health conditions. Next time we are going to be discussing different ways you access insurance with Phil Jeynes (Reassured), Alan Knowles (Cura Financial Services) and Neal Cross (Money Supermarket).Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, this is the first episode of season 5 and we have special guest, Peter Hamilton. Peter is joining us to talk about the different roles that he has within our industry and beyond, to improve access to insurance and the reputation of the insurance world.The key takeaways:We can make real positive change by ensuring that reinsurers, insurers, trade bodies and advisers are involved in working parties together.There is growth in clients wanting to understand the ethical and social behaviour of providers, and we should be prepared to have this to hand.eGPRs are a key focus for change this year.Next time we are starting a Mental Health Awareness Week in association with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Mental Health Working Group. From 31st January to 3 February we will be releasing a podcast each day, about mental health and the different stages of insurance. There will also be a webinar on Friday 4th, keep a look out for the registration details.To kick things off Lynn Beattie aka Mrs Mummypenny is joining me to talk about what it feels like to apply for insurance. We talk about things that can trigger someone wanting insurance, how mental health can play a part in a person’s decision to get cover and what it feels like to have insurance in place.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, this is the last episode of season 4 and of 2021. In this episode it is just me and I am answering a listener's question. Setul Metha contacted me a little while ago and asked if there was a chance that I could show how much age affects insurance premiums. Challenge accepted!Now, I know that listening to me talking about lots of numbers and premium pricing, is maybe not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve hopefully kept it nice and interesting for you. We will also be putting out a blog with tables that clearly show all the pricing.The key takeaways:The cost of life, critical illness cover and income protection start to jump up once you are in your 40s.An example of clearly explaining the difference between reviewable and guaranteed premiums for long-term protection.The importance of an adviser being very careful over the use of the word ‘guaranteed’.Next year we are back and kicking the year off with a Mental Health Awareness Week with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. For this week we are going to be putting out four podcasts about how mental health can be affected at different stages of the insurance journey. We will then also have a live webinar where you can quiz an adviser, actuary and underwriter all about mental health.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.

Hi everyone, we have Matt Rann back this week and we are talking about alcohol. With the run up to Christmas a bit of extra tipple is often on the cards, and whilst it takes quite a few units before insurers start to wonder about your liver, it can be quite easy to have a bit more than we expect at this time of year.This podcast is definitely not about telling you how much you should drink or advocating that you go teetotal. I didn’t drink for about 8 years with having my kids and breastfeeding, and I actually quite enjoyed it, but I did miss having a gin every now and then. In this episode we are focusing upon the questions that you need to be aware of when applying for protection insurance.The key takeaways:Most insurers tend to be ok with up to 30 units of alcohol per week.Don’t assume that if your client says that they only drink on special occasions, that they have never been told to reduce their alcohol consumption. It can make a big difference to what is on offer.A case study of arranging protection insurance for someone that was previously hospitalised for alcohol dependency.Next time I have Roy McLoughlin with me and we are joined by Peter Hamilton, to talk about his work in improving access to insurance.Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my Protection Insurance in Practice course here.