48% of advisers say that general insurance (GI) has become a more important source of income to them due to the current economic climate, taking into account rising inflation, limited housing stock availability and the cost-of-living crisis.

This is based on new findings from Paymentshield’s annual Adviser Survey, conducted in June 2022 with 331 advisers.

Despite this acknowledgement, the survey also revealed that 57% of advisers still sometimes miss opportunities to sell GI – although this is a slight improvement on previous years, with 60% admitting to this in the 2021 Adviser Survey and 61% in 2020.

Paymentshield is encouraging advisers to further reduce these overlooked opportunities and capitalise on potential commission – particularly as 33% of respondents are anticipating that rising interest rates will have a big impact on their ability to write mortgages over the next 12 months.

Remortgages represent a big area of missed opportunity, with 21% of advisers not discussing GI with remortgage clients at all.

The Quick Quote tool was ranked as the most frequently used feature within Paymentshield’s Adviser Hub platform, and out of all of the tools available, 31% rated Quick Quote as the most useful – the highest share of the vote.

Emma Green (pictured), Paymentshield’s director of distribution, said: “Alongside the increased recognition of GI’s income value, the survey also revealed that one in ten reported their company has seen the largest overall sales growth in GI than in any other area of the business in the last 12 months. Moreover, almost every single adviser (96%) who participated in our survey recognised that it is best practice to discuss GI with clients.

“Yet while advisers really see the value in discussing GI, it remains clear that, for some, having those conversations hasn’t yet turned into habit. But the potential impact of rising interest and inflation over the next year – which we know advisers are worried about – makes these conversations all the more important as a means of supplementing advisers’ income. As an example, if an adviser sells just five GI policies per month over a period of five years, on average that’s worth almost £50,000 in commission.

“We’ve worked hard to develop a really intelligent Quick Quote tool to make it even quicker and easier for advisers to provide a home insurance quote without compromising on accuracy, and it’s good to see advisers really value that. Looking ahead to our 2023 Adviser Survey, we want to see the year-on-year trend for a decline in our ‘missed opportunity’ statistic continue.”