The Practical Protection Podcast

Hi everybody, I have Jo Miller back with me, she wears many hats and this time she is with me as the Managing Director of the IPTF. Now, you might notice that there has been a bit of change. The IPTF is no longer the Income Protection Taskforce, they are now the Individual Protection Taskforce. Jo is joining us to explain that instead of focusing on a specific product, they are moving towards focusing upon specific clients needs and they change and evolve over time.

We do still have quite a focus on income protection and the different tools and educational materials you can access from the IPTF, to help you advise your clients to get the best out of these products.

The key takeaways:

• The IPTF have a value added services and ASU matrix, to make your life as an adviser a bit easier
• The recent IPAW week is up and ready on their website for you to catch up with insights on advising younger clients, moving out and moving on, growing a family, life moments that make a big financial hit, and retirement
• The IPTF have launched Airi (AI Resilience Insurance) to support advisers, with insights on social media for Wisdom Wednesdays

Next time I am going to be going through the FCAs final report on the protection insurance industry, that was published recently.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi everybody, I am back to chat about the times in a person’s life when things like life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection, really stand out. It might just be a natural next step in our lives in terms of independence and a growing family, or it might be that something unexpected has happened.

It’s very tricky as an adviser as we know that our clients could really benefit from x, y, z, but they might not be open to discussing them. You might find that your client doesn’t want options for income protection, but you could still put in your recommendation that they need it and a basic cost for it.

The key takeaways:

• Life milestones include buying a home, getting a new job, starting a family, losing a loved one, getting divorced and more
• As an adviser we might see a need for life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection, but we have to be mindful that people don’t ‘have’ to take these out
• Whether you integrate protection insurance into your own work, or signpost to another firm, either way is fine as you are making sure the client is getting a chance to see ways to protect their finances

Next time Jo Miller is going to be back with us, talking about all things Income Protection, with updates about the Income Protection Taskforce.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi everybody, I am back with a chat about GP reports and the way they are used to support protection insurance applications. Insurers do try their best to avoid GP reports wherever possible, they are costly, delay the start of policies and the ability to offer terms after the report are actually quite low. They also don’t want to put extra pressure on the NHS.

This means that insurers only go for GP reports when they absolutely need to see clear records of something on a person’s medical history. If someone has their full medical records, or specific specialist letters, insurers will try to use these to underwrite an application and get the cover in place as soon as possible.

The key takeaways:

• The pros and cons of paper vs electronic GP reports
• GP reports can have an errors in them and it’s essential that these are corrected not just for the insurance application, but for their own health data
• Splitting insurance over multiple policies instead of one, can mean that GP reports aren’t needed

Next time I will be going through different life milestones and how they can trigger conversations about protection insurance.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi everybody, I hope that you’re all well and getting close to having completed most of your CPD for the year, but have no worries I will still be here to help you get that extra IDD CPD in. In the most recent episode of the podcast I am focusing on how sports and hobbies can affect applications for protection insurance.

One of the most interesting things that I find about sports and hobbies, is that people that do then, don’t tend to think that they should be any concern to the insurer. They do them and do them very safely, but ultimately they are in an environment that is not as safe being at home curled up with a cuppa on the sofa.

The key takeaways:

• Insurers often want to know about scuba diving, sailing, motorbike riding, private flying and more, even horse riding!
• Insurers like to ask a catch all question about any extreme sports not listed - how are you meant to know what these are?
• Sports can lead to the highest type of rating for life insurance and are some of the key reasons that income protection applications have exclusions or are declined

I will be back next time with some insights into GP reports. GP reports are currently a key part of many insurance applications in the UK, they can really support your client

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi everybody, I am back from the summer holidays and feeling quite sad to have finished my first ever cruise. I was a bit paranoid as I have always been quick to feel motion sickness, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was ok, albeit with some pretty strong anti-sickness medication!

In this episode I am speaking with Andi, who was diagnosed with Parkinsons. She shares how the condition has altered her life and the impact that having income protection has had over the past couple of years.

The key takeaways:

• Andi shares the different symptoms that she started to experience when she was diagnosed with Parkinsons, things that are not what many would typically expect of the condition and that some of her symptoms were masked by HRT and attributed to menopause
• Andi talks about how she has adapted her life over time, to be able to carry on cycling, supporting Parkinsons UK and volunteering, whilst managing how her symptoms and tiredness changes each day
• Andi discusses how having an income protection policy enabled her to carry on working to some degree for as long as possible, and come to terms with the “bereavement” of her life pre Parkinsons

We are getting back into the swing of things after the summer holidays and the kids going back to school, so keep an eye out for new episodes coming out for the rest of the year. I’m planning on a good mix of underwriting insights and industry commentary, so hopefully a nice range of CPD for you.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi, everybody, Alan is back with me and we are discussing arranging protection insurance for someone living with dementia. The very first thing that you need to do, in my opinion, is to consider the person as vulnerable, with partners and children being classed as potentially vulnerable. The next step is to check with your compliance and any other oversight, to determine what you are and are not allowed to advise on in this situation.

Dementia will at some stage have a huge impact on a person and their loved ones and it’s important that you are keenly aware of the need to safeguard this person. Even if a lasting power of attorney is in place so that others can act on their behalf, you need to always go back to basics - what is the insurable need here?

The key takeaways:

• 1 in 3 people will experience dementia
• There can potentially be underwritten life insurance options, but you are likely to see a term cap of 5 years
• Most life insurance options will either exclude pre-existing conditions for the length of the policy, or for an initial moratorium period

I am now taking a break for summer of 2026. Three boys, 7 weeks of school holidays, wish me luck! I will see you in September.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi, everybody, I changed my mind and I’ve not done a medical deep dive and instead focused upon who is the ultimate insurer. Sadly, there isn’t one. Our lives would be so much easier if there was…

In this episode I have discussed the things that different insurers offer, that stand out to me. So this is my opinion, based upon my experience of when a client has explained their circumstances and I have gone ‘ooooh, Insurer X will be perfect’. I’m not going into underwriting or every single thing that makes an insurer unique, it’s just an overview of key parts of their products and services that make them a good choice for your client.

The key takeaways:

• Key titbits of 19 insurers offering protection insurance in the UK
• There are a lot of insurers and most of them have developed at least one unique product, or service, to support a client niche
• Insights into different life insurance, critical illness and income protection products

Alan will be back with me next time for a deep dive into a medical condition and how it’s underwritten for protection insurance. I keep saying that he will and then I get excited by another idea and put him off! We are always happy to take your suggestions on what to cover so please feel free to fire over any areas that you would like us to go into.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi, everybody, instead of doing a health deep dive, Alan had the great idea of doing an episode on being imaginative with client recommendations. There are lots of ways to build protection recommendations, a lot of the time it’s straightforward, but sometimes getting creative is necessary. I would like to make sure I’m clear that being creative must still be compliance approved!

In this episode I am giving you insights into the following areas and some examples of the insurances that are set up this way.

The key takeaways:

• Decreasing term insurance vs family income benefit
• Ways to address delays with GPs and medicals
• Splitting critical illness across multiple providers
• Joint Life Second Death vs Single Life policies
• Life of another cover for non-UK residents
• Layering income protection policies
• Insurance solutions for gift planning

Alan will be back with me next time for a deep dive into a medical condition and how it’s underwritten for protection insurance. We are always happy to take your suggestions on what to cover so please feel free to fire over any areas that you would like us to go into.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi, everybody, it’s the start of Season 12 and I’m focusing on underdisclosure in protection insurance. Also known as misrepresentation or non-disclosure, this is a situation that everyone wants to avoid. Underdisclosure might not change the terms of insurance, but, it can lead to prices or sum assureds changing, and in the worst case a policy being cancelled from inception.

The key takeaways:

• Non-disclosure is seen as innocent, negligent or deliberate
• It can be tricky sometimes to remember everything in your medical history that the insurer wants to know, so accessing your medical records before applying for cover can be a big help
• Examples of insurance questions in protection insurance where we see underdisclosure

Alan will be back with me next time for a deep dive into a medical condition and how it’s underwritten for protection insurance. We are always happy to take your suggestions on what to cover so please feel free to fire over any areas that you would like us to go into.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Hi, everybody, we are on the last episode of Season 11 and I’m focusing on overdisclosure. There is a lot of discussion in our industry about underdisclosure or non-disclosure, but not a lot of focus is put on the times when people tell insurers too much.

It is essential that you answer insurance applications truthfully and to the best of your knowledge, but you don’t need to volunteer information that the insurer doesn’t ask for. It’s one of the reasons why people can be a bit nervous about iGPRs as it does give the insurer a lot more information than they are generally asking for. Insurers are meant to ignore information that is not relevant to the questions that they ask, but that isn’t always the case.

The key takeaways:

• The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 means that consumers need to be careful to not misrepresent themselves to insurers, but also explicitly states that consumers do not need to volunteer information to insurers that isn’t asked for
• Insurance for commercial customers works differently as they do not have the protection of CIDRA 2012
• Examples of insurance questions in protection insurance that can lead to both over and underdisclosure

Do you have anything that you want me to cover in Season 12? I will be back soon with deep dives into underwriting and industry insights.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.