Protection sales have risen to a five-year high on the back of a surge in mortgage term policies.
Figures from Equifax Touchstone show protection product sales in the second quarter of 2017 rose by 4.9 per cent on the previous three months to £147.1m.
The data, which is collated from 22 protection providers with inputs from more than 11,000 advisers, revealed mortgage term policy sales grew most during the quarter - up by 20.7 per cent on the first quarter to £26.2m.
Critical illness policies saw the second-biggest increase in sales of 15 per cent to reach £4.5m.
Income protection (11.1 per cent), decreasing term with critical illness (10 per cent) and relevant life policies (8.7 per cent) also saw solid growth, while term and term with critical illness policies underwent minor falls in sales.
John Driscoll, director at Equifax Touchstone, said: “Our analysis shows that protection sales have continued to grow for each of the last three quarters, reaching their highest level in five years.
"This growth has been supported by a strong mortgage market, and the emergence of online intermediaries.”
He told FTAdviser: “I thought it was going to go the other way. When I talk to brokers, the general consensus is their own protection sales are pretty poor – possibly due to a lack of knowledge on the broker’s part and the client’s part.
“It might be some of the bigger players increasing volumes. The big networks and nationals put a lot of pressure on advisers to do sales, so it might be as a result of that.”
simon.allin@ft.com
