CIExpert’s “Single is Best” campaign has passed a major milestone, with more than 100 firms and 230 individuals pledging their support for the initiative to prioritise individual protection plans over joint life policies.
Launched in November 2024, the campaign has quickly gained traction, winning backing from distributors including LifeSearch and Reassured. Its central argument is that individual protection plans offer greater flexibility, broader coverage and stronger financial security for clients than joint life first event policies, which have long been the industry default.
Alan Lakey, director at CIExpert, said: “In just months, the ‘Single is Best’ campaign has gained incredible traction, highlighting a significant industry shift towards prioritising individual protection plans.
“This movement, rooted in our 2024 inaugural Critical Thinking study, has not only illuminated key consumer and adviser insights but has also driven tangible change. We are now seeing this reflected in our pledge support and, more importantly, in the evolving behaviours of some leading firms.
“This milestone underscores the industry’s increasing commitment to more client-focused protection strategies.”
ECONOMIC ABUSE
The campaign has also drawn attention to the risks joint life policies can pose for vulnerable customers. Research from Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA), the UK’s only charity dedicated to tackling this form of domestic abuse, shows that 4.1 million women experienced economic abuse from a partner or ex-partner last year. Abusers can use joint life policies to control victims by refusing consent to cancel them or by leveraging their position as beneficiary to reinforce threats.
SEA is backing CIExpert’s campaign and has urged the industry to make single life cover the default option, priced at the same level as joint policies. Lauren Garrett, senior financial services manager at SEA, said: “For too long, domestic abusers have misused joint life insurance policies as tools for economic abuse, both during relationships and long after separation.
“Perpetrators exploit these policies by withholding their consent to end them, trapping victim-survivors into unwanted financial ties for many years after separation.
“Alarmingly, some abusers even use their status as a beneficiary to reinforce their threats to kill, leaving victim-survivors living in fear for their lives.”
She added: “That’s why we are calling on the insurance industry to make single life insurance policies, at the same price per person as joint policies, the default offer.
“We’re pleased that CIExpert has supported our calls with its ‘Single is Best’ campaign, and now we want to work with the sector to help providers better identify and support customers experiencing economic abuse and prevent their products from being exploited by abusers.
“We’re also urging the government to consider legislative reforms to enable firms to separate or end joint policies in cases of economic abuse.”
Industry veteran Johnny Timpson OBE also lent his support, describing joint policies as “an opportunity for economic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour both during a relationship, and long after separation”.
He praised CIExpert’s role in driving change, noting that “as can be seen from Swiss Re Term Watch data, [it] is driving adviser policy and practice change by ensuring that protection policies in the UK are set up appropriately, with dual single rather than joint life policies the default.”
As the campaign builds momentum, CIExpert has expanded its outreach with the launch of its Critical Thinking Ambassadors Programme and by participating in industry events to encourage adviser engagement. The company maintains that the marginal extra cost of dual single policies is outweighed by the benefits to consumers, particularly those at risk of abuse.
The “Single is Best” pledge remains open for firms and advisers at ciexpert.uk/singleisbest.
