Almost three in five (57 per cent) advisers say their clients are actively seeking advice on general insurance.
Paymentshield’s annual adviser survey found that more than half of advisers have noticed an increase in demand for general insurance help in the past 12 months.
Paymentshield director of distribution, Emma Green, commented that it is “clear” from these findings that GI advice is growing in importance “both in the eyes of advisers and consumers”.
The importance of GI for advisers was also discovered in the survey, with 45 per cent of them stating that GI has become a more important source of income for them.
A further 64 per cent said they are worried about the overall state of the market and their ability to write mortgages.
As a result, Paymentshield argued it's “more important than ever” that advisers sell GI.
Missed opportunities
Despite this, 57 per cent of advisers said they sometimes miss opportunities to sell GI which is “largely consistent” with Paymentshield’s adviser survey findings from the previous three years.
It was additionally found that remortgage and product transfer clients represent a “significant cohort” with whom the GI conversation is not taken up, with one in five advisers saying they rarely or never discuss GI with these clients.
Paymentshield stated that is “especially concerning this year”, as residential product transfers were identified by 33 per cent of advisers as seeing the largest growth in sales in the past 12 months.
This was over six times more than in 2022.
“Advisers know they should be discussing GI and recognise the value in doing so, but some are still missing the opportunity”, Green stated.
She identified that this was especially present among remortgage and product transfer customers, who represent the biggest share of mortgage transactions this year.
“Missing out on those opportunities is undoubtedly exacerbated this year by market conditions which are making life more difficult for advisers, coupled with new demands on advisers’ time in the form of navigating the new consumer duty requirements,” she added.
Nonetheless, the majority of advisers (nine in 10) stated that it is best practice to discuss GI with every client and regard a GI conversation as an important part of their new consumer duty responsibilities.
Some 73 per cent of firms do not have a GI specialist in place, meaning that for most, advisers are picking up the conversation with their clients alongside their other advised conversations.
Paymentshield’s survey was conducted in July and August 2023 and included 526 advisers.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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