For many years, major financial institutions and large retailers have understood the benefits of presenting their customers with complementary products alongside their core offering.
Banks and building societies may offer their customers life insurance during a mortgage application; retailers trigger private medical insurance off data-led life events.
In return, they generate considerable, incremental revenue, driving up the lifetime value of their customer base.
Historically, these products have been offered through exclusive, contractual arrangements with a single, large retail insurer – a “single-tie” model where customers see only the terms, prices and restrictions of that one provider, however well-known that brand might be.
At LifeSearch we believe that consumers need and deserve more freedom, more personalisation and ultimately more choice. The phrase ‘single-tied’ says it all. Single: alone and disconnected. Tied: restricted and restrained. In an industry built on trust, that feels outdated – and the evidence suggests consumers think so too.
THE CONSUMER CASE FOR CHOICE
The results of our most recent study into the subject, carried out by Opinium Research in January 2026, were very clear and illustrated that single-tie arrangements really didn’t help support the FCA’s ambitions to close the protection gap.
It found that consumers were 3.5 times more likely to be discouraged from purchasing life insurance than encouraged if they discovered their bank or building society operated a single-tie model. More than four in 10 (42%) of consumers said they would trust them less if it only offered life insurance from just one insurer.
Among building society members, trust concerns were even more pronounced, with 45% saying they would trust their provider less under a single-tie arrangement.
Perhaps most alarming, for many of those consumers, walking away doesn’t mean shopping elsewhere. It means delaying or abandoning protection altogether. Single-tie arrangements don’t just limit choice, they actively widen the protection gap the FCA is working hard to close.
So, for banks and building societies looking to offer protection products to the customers they’ve worked so hard to earn, the question is no longer whether choice matters, but how much choice they’re willing to give.
THE COMMERCIAL AND REGULATORY CHALLENGE
Today’s customers expect more freedom, more personalisation, and more control over the decisions that shape their lives. The single-tie model belongs to a bygone era where restriction came before flexibility.
That’s why a broker model – as we operate at LifeSearch – with a wide range of UK insurers, gives customers access to more choice and more flexibility; bringing protection products to where people are already living, shopping, banking, browsing and clicking.
THE SHIFT IS ALREADY HAPPENING
Last year, Yorkshire Building Society moved away from a single-tie model and partnered with LifeSearch – giving its customers access to the wider market and the benefit of specialist advice. They’re now protecting more members than before, and around 90% of customers now receive a viable protection quote when arranging their mortgage, up from around 60% previously.
More recently, others have followed a similar path. Skipton Building Society has also moved to a broker model, recognising the importance of giving members more choice and support at the point protection matters most – alongside a mortgage or remortgage.
For mutuals, this is about helping members make better long‑term decisions, not just offering products. And for both, it’s proving a natural step in making protection part of the mortgage conversation, rather than an afterthought.
The protection gap won’t close itself. Advisers, lenders and distributors all have a role to play. We’d welcome more of the industry joining us in making that shift.
