“There are many objections, all of which can be handled with the right responses,” says Kevin Carr, managing director of Kevin Carr Consulting.
“These include claims not being paid, underwriting taking too long, the cost of cover being too expensive, relying on the state to look after the family, doubting the need for cover and so on.
“Taking some of these as examples, on average in excess of 90 per cent of life and CI claims are paid in the UK and most insurers openly publish the statistics. Underwriting can take time for older clients and larger sums assured, however, the delays have reduced over the years with tele-underwriting and online underwriting systems.”
Michael Owen, director of Brooks Macdonald Financial Consulting, adds that advisers would be well advised to prepare their clients for the process taking a month to six weeks to complete in some case.
He adds that an adviser should help their client better understand the perceived value in life insurance: “In most cases, the person who is being insured is the same person paying the premiums. It can often be difficult to convince someone that they should be paying to enrich someone else in the event of their death.
“However, in clearly setting out how their loved-ones may be financially disadvantaged without insurance, clients must take a view about what is important to them.”
Peter Hamilton, head of Zurich UK Life’s protection proposition, suggests that at the start of any meeting, the adviser should outline what he or she is going to do.
“Gain permission to ask challenging questions, explaining that this is so he or she can provide the right protection advice. Establish what protection plans the client currently has. What does having these plans mean to the client? How important are they?”
He believes advisers should question where clients would ideally be financially if the unthinkable should happen and then “test the importance of their answers by asking – ‘How important is that to you? Why is that so important? How are you going to achieve this?’”
He adds: “Now you know what they want, ask them, ‘where’s that going to come from?’ and clarify – ‘how will that work?’. Help clients identify, take ownership and action if their current plans are inadequate or inappropriate.”
But at the end of the conversation, if the adviser has informed the client of the risks and suggested means of protecting themselves against it, many will still refuse to take action and so the conversation moves on.
