She adds: “Clients with large incomes should really be given options in regards to income protection. Yes they have a lot of income now, but if they fall ill, the shock of the loss of income to the household [...] would be highly felt.”
Signposting service
She adds that for advisers who do not want to offer full protection advice, she has seen some signpost their clients for advice elsewhere, as part of their financial planning package: “IFAs do not have the time to meet the compliance requirements of training to advise on protection, on top of all of the regulatory requirements that they already face. There can also sometimes be a lack of understanding on what the protection market has to offer.
“This can be the types of policies that are available, or the way that specific risks are viewed by insurers. That’s not to say that IFAs cannot do protection themselves, but the amount of insurers and different product types that are available in the protection market is complex.”
Matthew Chapman adds: “I do think more and more wealth advisers are beginning to see protection as a key ingredient in their overall financial planning recommendations. The one area where I feel I am seeing improvements is in the number of advisers who are now more prepared to refer their protection business on to specialists.
“If wealth advisers are not prepared to discuss protection with their clients, then they should definitely signpost to another adviser who is, or potentially face negative outcomes for all involved. At the end of the day, advisers should 'write it or refer it'.”
