One of several trends in the protection market over the last decade or so has been the ongoing addition of added value product benefits, which look to reduce the focus on price.
Advisers can add value and differentiate their advice from those sellers who would not mention such benefits - and perhaps would not even know about them - by simply understanding what is available and mentioning it where relevant to specific clients.
While some advisers might see these as ‘bells & whistles’, many others are strong supporters of some of the additions being made by insurers and have experienced the benefits first hand with their own clients.
Emma Thomson, head of life office relations for protection intermediary LifeSearch, agrees: “Ancillary benefits help attract and retain customers. Clients who see value from their protection plans through benefits such as helplines, free cinema tickets and reduced gym memberships will be more likely to keep their cover in place, especially when premium discounts are also offered in return for their loyalty.
“Providers need to do more to retain customers and also ensure that the extra benefits they offer are better promoted.”
It is worth, then, taking a look at some of the most popular and most common added value protection benefits, many of which are automatically included within the price.
Red Arc
Red Arc is an care advisory service providing information, advice and emotional support to people when they need it most. Put simply, they provide an important counselling and support option to people diagnosed with a serious illness, as well as their families.
According to Red Arc, 85 per cent of those who have the service made available to them go on to use the service in some way and several intermediaries have added the service themselves so that it does not impact on which insurer they recommend.
In protection, a successful claim usually results a payment being made and little else, which is where such benefits fit in and while not every insurer uses Red Arc some use other counselling services.
As someone once said, if you broke down on the M1 and the AA sent you a cheque you would not be too pleased.
Aviva has just announced this week that it is to make Red Arc available to all new critical illness customers.
Best doctors
‘Best doctors’ has been described as the best second opinion you will ever get. Put simply it provides access to a database of 50,000 leading medical specialists in over 400 different areas of medical discipline.
