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Protection policies have historically been sold to accompany a mortgage but with fewer home loan deals being arranged in 2008, will insurance sales also slide? Peter Hamilton, protection management director for Zurich, said historically between 50 and 60 per cent of protection sales were on the back of mortgage sales.

But having said that, Mr Hamilton believes it is not all bad news as there are opportunities for mortgage advisers to use the cooler economic climate to arrange more insurance for clients concerned about mortgage repayments.

Mr Hamilton said: "When you look at the number of housing transactions there are still far too many where the mortgage goes unprotected for whatever reason. If those transactions are going ahead there remains that opportunity.

"There will be some advisers who in the last two or three years due to the volume of mortgages they have been placing have got out of the habit of writing protection business."

Mark Jones, head of protection marketing for Friends Provident, agreed with Mr Hamilton that a lot of the protection market was aligned with the mortgage market so if the amount of home loans arranged decreased you would expect there to be fewer people to sell protection products in the normal catchment event.

But he said the other side was as mortgage sales reduced advisers income shrunk so there could be a tendency to focus more on protection sales to bolster income.

Mr Jones said: "For the advisers that are very mortgage-focused protection sales will decrease, but those that grasp the opportunity and look to increase their protection sales could see that side of the business increase even though their mortgage sales are reducing."

A lot of providers are aware of the market advisers face, Mr Jones said, and they are now providing a lot more support for intermediaries to help them expand their businesses and maintain income streams, he said.

Mr Jones said: "If this works it should help to fill the protection gap but when the mortgage business comes back with the knowledge and the experience people have developed during this time it will put them in good stead to be really successful going forward."

Mr Jones said Friends Provident did an online seminar in April that helped advisers improve their business, showed different ways of fact finding and identifying customers needs.

The interest in this indicated protection sales were no longer an afterthought for many mortgage advisers in 2008.

Mr Jones' view was shared by Justin Harper, head of intermediary marketing for LV=. He said LV= had found when investment markets fell and the economy took a downturn advisers tended to move back to protection rather than retirement or investment products.

Mr Harper said: "Overall we will see a downturn because a lot of protection business is written around mortgages rather than through more holistic financial planning. However the mortgage advisers we have been speaking to are concerned about supplementing their income and finding new revenue streams so protection is something they are more open-minded to now to make sure they are covering their costs and also doing a decent job for their clients as well."

Mr Harper said there was a great deal insurers could do to support mortgage advisers to break down the misunderstandings surrounding protection sales and give them some real help in making the right choices for the client.

He said: "We are doing that in a number of ways with roadshows, through adviser networks and we have got online learning, which is a very easily digestible form that gives them understanding of how the product works but also how to sell the concept of protection.

"It is great if they have the opportunity to attend roadshows but if they got something easily to hand on their desktop then that is an ideal solution for them."

Ben Heffer, principal consultant for life and protection for financial services researchers Defaqto, said there was a real opportunity presented by the current mortgage crisis for mortgage advisers to retrain and focus on selling protection products.

He said: "Quality products designed specifically for this channel and increased marketing activity present real opportunities for the industry to close the protection gap and increase value."

Shaun Mattison, chief executive of PruProtect, said training was vital for mortgage advisers no longer used to arranging protection for their clients.

He said to ensure mortgage advisers who were uncomfortable recommending protection or had fallen out of the practice of bringing up the subject of insurance could obtain training from many providers.

Mr Mattison said: "We have been quite intensively recruiting face-to-face sales people to support advisers and we have probably doubled our support team in the last few months. It is the first step to providing capacity to advisers and then we have been equipping our own team with the tools to make advisers far more comfortable and proficient in what they need to do to sell to customers."

Undoubtedly grey clouds continue to dominate the mortgage market for the remainder of 2008, but insurers are stepping forward with a silver lining.