When most of us see the words; task force, committee, and white paper, - we turn to something more interesting like the sports pages or watching paint dry.
Like Government, certain sections of the insurance industry love their talking shops and progress at snail like speed through industry consensus.
The Income Protection Task Force (IPTF) – was set up to find ways of promoting Income protection insurance, which although a vital product, has become a backwater compared to the more high profile but more narrow, Mortgage Payment Protection covers.
It recently issued a White paper, most of which is of less interest to the average consumer than the election results in Mumbo Jumbo.
Hidden away are some good ideas:-
Better products
More understandable products
Consumers should be made aware of the risks they face without cover.
Applying for and getting cover should also be made easy.
Most of the insurers in the Income Protection market contributed directly or indirectly to the White paper.
We appreciate that product development takes time, but if insurers believe their own publication, they should be working now on new products, for later this year.
Their own report says, ” The industry has been surprisingly reluctant to use real case studies of people whose lives have been affected by disability yet had, at least, financial security because of income protection.”
This is something insurers can provide now. Insurers, send us the stories * and we will publish them as case histories.
One huge complaint in the white paper was the reluctance of many insurance intermediaries to sell the cover. This is not a new problem, so we suggest to insurers - instead of moaning about how hard it is to get them to sell your products- sell direct.
On transparency, write web sites and product literature that the average customer can understand – without jargon.
Selling direct via web sites would also solve many of the problems of transparency and slowness in quoting premiums.
Related links
