Legal & General has joined CIExpert’s Insight Zone, turning the spotlight on the recent upgrade to its critical illness plan.
This partnership follows the Insight Zone’s recent additions of Zurich and Vitality, together with the new venture into income protection with Guardian’s newly released product.
CIExpert sees the success of its Insight Zone as being related to the increasing appetite of advisers for independent tools that support client interaction in virtual settings such as provided by Teams & Zoom.
The ability to explain policy features using visually interactive tools and to articulate the options and their recommendations via a screen in an engaging way has become increasingly important.
CIExpert notes that it has also seen a market uplift with adviser firms seeking solutions to the regular reviews that form a key element of their Consumer Duty obligations as it enables them to assess the ‘fair value’ of the client’s protection products thereby ensuring compliance.
This is borne out by the recent annual report carried out by NMG, looking at industry trends within the protection industry.
The NMG report shows that 70% of advisers are now using a product comparison service and of those advisers utilising a comparison service for critical illness that “CIExpert continues to be the most used system, accounting for 62% of all usage citations (up 10% on last year) and receiving overwhelming positive feedback from advisers.”
L&G’s decision to join the Insight Zone will mean that advisers have even more policy information and tools at their fingertips to promote meaningful client conversations as part of annual reviews for Consumer Duty, which CIExpert hopes will have a long-lasting effect on consumer’s awareness and understanding of protection policies and their value.
Alan Lakey, director at CIExpert, said: “After more than a decade as the UK’s leading critical illness cover comparison tool it is heart-warming to see an increasing number of advisers putting behind them the days of selling on price and condition numbers and instead seeing the benefits of seeking solutions for their clients driven by the best outcome available to them within their own budget limits.
“In the past few years, advisers have been faced with a pandemic, rising interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis creating challenges outside of their control, so I was unsure how the industry would react to the introduction of the new Consumer Duty regulation too.”
“I don’t have a reputation for welcoming new regulations as they are often ill-conceived, however as I have often argued, critical illness conditions criteria should be judged by outcomes.
“Evidence to date suggests that Consumer Duty is driving an outcome where an increasing number of advisers will engage in protection product selection in a much more qualitative manner.
He continued: “We are delighted to have another significant insurer like L&G join the CIC Insight Zone.
“Their support alongside the other recent additions enables us to further develop and maintain this service for CIExpert’s existing users at no additional cost.”
Julie Godley, director of intermediary, Legal & General Retail, added: “We’re thrilled to be the latest insurer to join CIExpert’s Protection Insight Zones.
“Providing advisers with the information and knowledge they need to ensure their clients get the best possible advice is central to everything we do.”
She concluded: “The range of interactive tools CIExpert have developed as part of their Insight Zone helps advisers explain how the flexibility of Legal & General’s protection plans can help deliver good customer outcomes when their clients need it most.”
