Nearly half (47 per cent) of UK advisers “strongly agree” that 2024 is shaping up to be a positive year for protection sales growth, research from iPipeline has revealed.
The research, which surveyed 200 advisers in the UK, pointed out this was an 8 percentage point increase on last year, when 39 per cent of respondents expressed positivity.
The technology supplier said this indicated growing adviser confidence in protection.
iPipeline director of client distribution, Stephanie Hydon, explained: “There does seem to be a growing sense that protection advice is changing for the better and that quality is starting to trump quality.
“The move to recommending a better quality mix of protection solutions could be why we are seeing the growth of income protection.”
The research also looked at specified types of protection, with advisers most positive the growth is coming from income protection, identified by 43 per cent of respondents.
This was ahead of critical illness (23 per cent) and term assurance (21 per cent).
Additionally, Hydon added: “Our own data also evidences the continued popularity of multi-benefit plans, which accounted for 46 per cent of new policy value added through our adviser portals last year, up from 42 per cent in 2022.
“Advisers continue to strive to ensure every customer is properly protected across multiple areas and increased efficiency in providing advice gives them back the most important thing, time.
“Time to properly engage customers and find the very best option for them, which is time well spent as the data suggests.”
The research coincided with Swiss Re’s Term and Health Wealth Watch 2024, which found, although sales of new long-term individual protection policies in 2023 decreased by nearly 6 per cent, new income protection policies increased by 10 per cent to 198,566.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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