Dean Jones, head of paaleads.com, looks at possible reasons why last month produced an uplift in protection business
Without almost a moment to breathe, we find ourselves in February, with financial services sector continuing to dominate world news, from stories on the growth of the economy (however small) to Obama’s banking model for the new world order.
At paaleads.com, we had a flying start to the year with a significant increase in the numbers of consumers looking for advice around life insurance. Compared to last January we have seen an uplift of 20% in the number of consumers looking for life insurance, with levels higher in the past month that we saw across of all of last year. All this in a month that, December aside, tends to see the lowest consumer demand.
January in some ways seems a logical time for people to review the protection for a number of reasons. Typically, people will have enjoyed time with family and loved ones over the holiday period and this may encourage them to consider securing their finances in order to maintain this yearly tradition. In addition, the New Year is always a popular time for people to start afresh with many embarking on a reassessment of their finances.
Another reason could well be increased job security as we start to emerge from the recession. We have seen a slight drop off in consumers looking for ASU cover, so it could be the concern people had in January last year has been converted into more long term thinking, as people feel more secure in their jobs and search for life cover instead.
Brokers can also feel buoyed by news out last week that dual pricing is starting to level off and brokers can now offer consumers the same deal that they have been able to secure in branch over the last couple of years. Dual pricing is a tricky issue, and in reality, a level playing field is the best result, so that consumers can receive impartial professional advice from a broker or choose to go to their bank or another provider on the high street and receive the same deal. I am sure this issue will continue to be debated for some time to come.
As an aside, one story from the last month in the adviser market featured moneysupermarket.com and an arrangement signed with London & Country relating to the referral of overflow calls direct to the call centre. Just to clarify for anyone reading this – this makes no difference to advisers who buy leads from paaleads.com L&C’s arrangement is to handle some of the excess calls that come direct into moneysupermarket.com, these were consumers that never entered the paaleads.com system, so advisers are not losing out in anyway. I hope that clears things up, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to give me or one of the team a call.
