The guides focus on three key challenges advisers face with regards to writing more protection business.
The first guide is on customer communication, and is a white-labelled consumer guide to protection that advisers can use to go over options with customers in “plain and easy-to-understand language”.
The second guide is on making recommendations and is an overview for advisers on four factors key to protection recommendations. These are product, price, underwriting and service.
The last guide is on underwriting, and is a step-by-step guide on how advisers can traverse the underwriting process, including tips on how to speed up the process.
The guides have been developed in response to the group’s protection pledge campaign, which highlights key issues and challenges advisers come across when trying to write more protection business.
Advisers can get more information on the guides by emailing: protection@trustpms.com
‘Protection can provide peace of mind’
Emma Thomson, head of protection and general insurance propositions at Sesame Bankhall Group, said: “At a time when volatile economic conditions are increasing the pressure on consumers, protection can provide financial resilience and peace of mind.
“The onus on advisers to have these conversations will increase further through the implementation of Consumer Duty, as the FCA looks to ensure businesses are helping provide better outcomes to customers and safeguard them against foreseeable harm.”
She said that over 750 advisers had signed up to its protection pledge campaign and pledged to have a protection conversation with every customer, in order to gauge appetite.
“Now that our campaign has identified the key protection challenges advisers are facing, boosting their knowledge, skills and confidence is the natural next step. Sesame Bankhall Group’s guides will make it easier for advisers to make a recommendation and navigate the underwriting process, while also empowering their customers to make better-informed decisions when it comes to protection,” Thomson noted.
‘New guides are a welcome addition’
New Leaf Distribution is one of the financial advisory firms that signed up to the protection pledge campaign.
Daniel Hobbs, managing director at New Leaf Distribution, said: “As a forward-thinking firm, we are always looking for ways to improve our customer communications and streamline adviser processes.
“All these new guides are a welcome addition, helping us to engage our customers by presenting the options clearly and simply. The consumer guide to protection is one of the best I’ve seen as a summary for customers, and it can be white labelled too, which is a real bonus. Once a customer truly understands the reassurance that can be gained from protecting themselves and their family’s future then the benefits to all become abundantly clear.”
