One of the few headlines that made me stop in my tracks. The report from Shelter was quite shocking in that it found:
– 18% of UK workers have insufficient savings to cover a month’s rent or mortgage
– 35% or 8.4m people could not afford to keep up payments for more than one month
In a developed country this is an unacceptable situation. Whilst we may point to government policies – both those of the current Conservative and previous Labour governments -being a contributory factor, as well as the austerity measures, there is more that we can do.
It is true that whilst we cannot change government views (quickly at least) we are all in a position on a micro level to be able to help. All advisers have a database of clients, if you only work on 25% of those fitting into the above category what would that do to your future income opportunities?
But, more importantly what help can you provide to them now? As an industry we have improved dramatically at selling life cover over the last few years which is excellent news.
However, as the above shows increasing the penetration rates of both income protection and ASU policies needs to be improved. Income protection is perceived as too expensive but there are many options that will enable policies to be tailored to a client’s need that reduce the costs. Deferment periods can be matched to client’s company sick policies and also maybe combined to a less expensive ASU policy.
Many of the life companies have both marketing and training material that will help you, help more of your clients that may currently fit into that 35% bracket stay out of that position. Call them now.
Martin Reynolds is chief executive at SimplyBiz Mortgages
