Shining a light on Brighton’s maturing adviser base

 

 

Life’s hard enough without having to do tough things like tax returns, working out your pension contributions or even making sure you have the right balance of life insurance cover in place to protect what’s important to you. 

 

Naturally, as we get older, the idea that we need to join a spiralling NHS waiting list every time something else starts to go wrong with us soon becomes another of those things we just don’t want to deal with.

 

That’s why it was only natural that, after initially building our adviser business on core insurance products that protect important things like your income or your life, that we expand into related areas where Britons need cost-effective, tailored advice such as pension and estate planning and private medical insurance. 

 

Just last week, we passed a historic milestone for such a customer-centric business when we received our 1,000th independent 5-star client review. Coming from clients who live right across the UK, this came as a tremendous endorsement for the way we choose to do business.

 

The news that, quietly investing in the best adviser and customer service talent that the Brighton area has to offer and just ‘concentrating on our knitting’ has led to our being shortlisted for Health Insurance Adviser of the Year at this year’s Protection Review Awards, has also come as a great boost. 

 

Especially as our continued growth in the sector has recently seen us add new advisers to both our group and individual PMI teams in Brighton and London Cannon Street, as well as adding to our ever-growing customer service team.  

 

If your business is all about finding the right balance of protection, investment, pension and tax planning for its clients, then it makes sense to build a specialism in providing the best health insurance solutions for those clients – whether they’re individuals or small companies that are anxious to protect their all-important human capital.

 

Many of our group clients these days are only too painfully aware of how expensive it can be for their businesses if their best talent is suddenly struck ill – especially if the over-burdened NHS is the only way to alleviate the problem.

 

Meanwhile, as well as helping new individual buyers find the right type of cover for themselves and their families, we’ve found that a good deal of our individual client PMI book now comes from elsewhere.

 

These days, there are a great many Britons who may have enjoyed PMI cover for years as part of their old employer’s package but who through changing jobs, being made redundant or just retiring from the ‘rat race’ once and for all, suddenly find themselves without private medical coverage.

 

It’s only when they look into the matter that most people in this position realise:

 

a)What an expensive proposition adequate PMI cover is for them and their family now that their old company isn’t picking up the tab; and (still worse) that

 

b)They only have 30 days in which to secure cover on the same terms or they risk having to be underwritten again – which will send the premiums sky-rocketing! 

 

 

So with the clock ticking, a great many of the PMI clients we’ve helped in recent years have understandably come to us in something of a panic! 

 

Fortunately, there are numerous ‘tricks of the trade’ that can help even older clients to find the right level of cover – and premium – for their needs. 

 

For those nearing the end of their planned working lives, it all comes down to helping them find ways to manage their PMI cover in the best way. 

 

There are numerous options like adding policy excesses or waiting periods that can significantly reduce premiums. Similarly, slimming out the package by removing expensive non-core options such as therapy or outpatient benefits will also greatly improve affordability.

 

By inserting ourselves in the claims process we’ve also been able to help guide our clients and make life significantly easier for them. The claims experience for individual PMI insurance is harrowing to say the least, which keeps individual premium levels very high, especially for older people. 

 

But the reward for not making a claim for five years can be the opportunity to switch between providers with a clean ‘bill of health’, which will again have a significant impact on the long-term costs.

 

For many older clients, the savings involved are so great that it makes sense to save their PMI cover for real emergencies and to instead keep a decent sum set aside to pick up the cost of any smaller procedures that their family might need on the way to building up that all-important ‘no claims’ bonus. 

 

It many ways it’s a lot like how oil companies and similar corporate giants ‘self-insure’ their biggest assets. They set funds aside to make sure they have enough to cover most emergencies and they rely on their insurance to bail them out if the worst happens. 

 

That way, they never have to worry about their premiums becoming unmanageably high and, if they succeed in avoiding any serious problems, they still have their initial capital.

 

By helping our older PMI clients to do the same, we’ve also created the opportunity for our wealth advisers to help when it comes to putting the right amount of money to one side and making sure that it’s properly invested for the purpose in things like ISAs or pensions. 

Like a great deal of the advice and the solutions we now provide to our clients, it’s really just common sense when you stop to think about it – unfortunately too few of us ever do until it’s almost too late. 

 

If anything, winning this year’s PMI Adviser of the Year Award would be a testament to the fact that you’re never too old to create a plan of action that prevents you and your family having to rely on the mercies of the state for your healthcare needs (although we’d also love to see Brighton’s growing stock as a centre of excellence for financial advice recognised by the wider industry!)