Upscaling Protection Prevails

In the absence of a reliable crystal ball or a consistently right deck of tarot cards, it seems that there remains a continued area of uncertainty over the future outcomes of protection for families and particularly for life insurance.

Only recently we saw an article from the BBC highlighting the fact that life expectancy has fallen in the USA. https://bbc.in/3pDiW7s

Earlier today I read a very brief snippet from Life Insurance in Life Stages (2020) – LIMRA, that I thought I would share with you, as it concluded:

29% of Americans say they are now more likely to buy life insurance due to COVID-19

68% of people who already have coverage say they are more likely to buy more.

In this case, with uncertainty comes opportunity. An opportunity to revisit high net worth clients and review and possibly upscale their levels of protection which by default of their increasing wealth may be smaller than required. They may not necessarily thank you for proposing more life insurance that their families will certainly express gratitude for putting in place what this provides.

This also presents an opportunity for other financial services products to be discussed as well as referral opportunities as our human nature remains that we all like to talk a lot about what we are doing!

We may think we know what the future holds but if you had said that this time last year, you would be wrong! I know that slightly harsh and maybe unprofessional, but it is a reality and certainly in the UK when it was highlighted by Professor Stephen Powis that we may lose 20,000 people succumbing to this wretched pandemic, it was a number that just did not compute. https://bit.ly/3oFcZal

And yet, now in the UK alone, we have sadly raced through the 120,000 mark and what is worse in many cases have become desensitised to the daily figures that continue to be on our news.

The continuation of the global rollout for the vaccine is happening, albeit at a different pace depending upon where you live. But there is no doubt it has made people stop for a second and think what might have happened to them, their businesses and their loved ones had there been a loss because of something they knew little about 12 months ago.

If you knew what you know now 12 months ago, what changes would you have made? That is a difficult one to avoid!

When I first joined the industry in the late 1980s, one of the insurance companies had an amazingly simple slogan: "Insure Today - Be Sure Tomorrow”. It captured the whole essence of living in peace.

I also cannot claim to have made this one up, but more a case of these two questions resonating with me on LinkedIn, posted from one of our Global Partners:

"Have you got life insurance? "

"Did your husband have life insurance before he passed away?"

Very thought-provoking and as I always repeat, the subject of life insurance does not seem too exciting discussed around the dinner table but reframing this as “creating a bespoke succession solution” suddenly just got interesting!

Almost daily I am now having discussions where somewhere along the line it is mentioned that “we’ve had our first Covid 19” claim. Remembering that the best insurance policy is the one that pays out the most when you need it further highlights the need for reviews and ongoing discussions to factor in global events and the impact these have had on the industry.

So, whilst we do not have the crystal ball that I mentioned at the beginning of this brief note, we do fortunately have the tools with which we can professionally face challenges and in doing so provide real security and more to our connections.

We want everyone to live in peace and not in pieces, don’t we?

Quality life insurance with underlying guarantees on growth underwritten by some of the largest and highly rated organisations is the only way to go to add value and secure as much of the future as possible.