The insurance industry is in retreat and should not forget the protection against serious life events it can offer to the man and woman in the street, Brian Hall, managing director of BHSF Employee Benefits urged attendees at last week’s Corporate Adviser Group Risk & Healthcare Forum.
In a passionate talk entitled Trends in workplace benefits Hall highlighted the way cover that could be sold for as little as £1 or £2 a week could make a huge difference to the lives of the not so well off.
Hall said insurance industry professionals often forgot just how life-changing the benefits they put in place can be for the individuals whose circumstances mean they have to call on them.
He said: “In my view insurance support for the man in the street is in retreat and I think that the insurance industry is on the whole abandoning him. If you go back to when I joined the industry at the age of 19 there were thousands of insurance reps and these people would sell insurance, some of them not very reputably or thoroughly, but on the whole they sold insurance.
“People like my mum bought cover because someone tapped on her door and said they’d just sold some to her next door neighbour so she should have some as well. Not the greatest reason to buy insurance in the world but when I turned 18 the policy she bought did buy my first car.”
Hall also highlighted how banks and other organisations have been retreating from selling insurance add-ons because of regulation and have also been distancing themselves from thousands of non-viable customers.
“As you won’t get sold a policy by the man from the Pru it falls to us nowadays,” he continued. “Around two thirds of people have no life insurance and 46 per cent of households have savings of less than £1,500. So if the breadwinner cops it two thirds of families are stuffed, and we need to do something about it.”