Although we yearn for a return to normality there is no denying that some aspects of life may never return to pre-Covid times. Some changes, like working from home, are positive for many people and perhaps are here to stay. Others, such as not being able to mingle with family and friends, are bothersome, and most of us cannot wait to move forward and put these in the distant past.

What has this got to do with insurance? Well, looking at the positives and negatives got me thinking about what we could, or should, take forward for protection insurance from the Covid era when we come out the other side. Be it earned income, investment income or savings income, the need to have this ‘income coming in’ has always been extremely important. Although automated credits and debits in and out of our accounts during the pandemic have meant a lack of coins and notes changing hands, we may have forgotten just how important these incomes are. What happens when they reduce or cease altogether?

Income fragility

Risks to our income existed pre-Covid, albeit in smaller, individual cases. What Covid has shown on a massive scale is the true fragility of our earned incomes. Literally, here today, gone tomorrow.

The lifeline, for those who qualify, has been state support packages. For those who do not, the outlook for many is bleak. We must consider and recognise not only the short-term nature of such support measures but the limits on how much they can pay and replace.

Much has been published about increased client interest in protection products since the arrival of Covid, from a rise in Google searches to bigger sales of policies. Although I’ve not usually struggled to portray the ‘Money in, money out’ concept to my clients, I have found that emphasising the importance of a solid income has been better received when relating it to the current pandemic.

When we eventually emerge from this period, I urge the industry to take away three key points.

Make the link

First, continue to relate the fragility of our incomes and the need for protection to these strange times. During the pandemic many have feared, and still fear, the loss of their job. But the risk of ill health or early death has always existed.

Evolve the conversation

Second, evolve the conversation beyond protecting just the mortgage. The struggles during Covid have put strains on all parts of spending – including rent, food, bills and savings – not just mortgage payments.

Judging by the advice given to my parents, little has changed in the past 40 years; most of us have held on to the old teaching of ‘protecting the mortgage’.

It is time to move this conversation on if we are truly to do what is right for the client and their family. Protect their income in the event of death or ill health, and ensure we provide a holistic advice service.

The choice of cover will remain the prerogative of the client but, as I discuss in my protection conversations, with the right education, information and understanding, a suitably informed decision can be made.

When we stick to the archaic sales processes and talk only about protecting the mortgage, we fail to educate and advise on the importance of everything else for which people use their income, whether now or in the future.

Separate discussion

Third, for the advisers out there, please, please, avoid squeezing the protection conversation into the end of the financial or mortgage meeting. Make it a separate discussion and give it the due importance it deserves.

Many investment and wealth advisers have an investment proposition. If you genuinely want to maintain the momentum that protection, as an integral part of financial planning, is gaining, please develop your own protection proposition. In line with this, review your protection advice processes. We are, after all, advisers trusted by the client to provide the right and best advice.

Across the industry, we owe it to our clients and their families to advise on, develop and promote holistic protection planning. If we can change our views around protection together, the views of our clients will shortly follow.

Jiten Varsani, mortgage and protection adviser, London Money