I wrote a freelance article for Protection Guru to mark Cancer Survivors Day earlier this month. The brief was to speak to people in the protection industry who have personal experience of cancer and the protection claims process.
My first ports of call were industry consultant Emma Thomson and MetLife UK head of individual protection Phil Jeynes. Both have spoken publicly about their cancer experiences, and as expected they were happy to help. But I also wanted to widen my net, so I put the word out among PRs and marketing teams that I was looking for people in the industry to share their stories.
It’s a sensitive subject – I know people in financial services who have told me about having cancer but want to keep it a private matter. So, I wasn’t expecting many people to come forward.
Something worried me – none of the willing participants had mentioned their experience of the protection claims process
It surprised me when my contacts came back with the names of several people who wanted to help. But something worried me – none of those willing participants had mentioned their experience of the protection claims process. What if they were expecting to contribute to a consumer-type article around cancer awareness and had nothing to say about protection claims?
A bit of double checking proved I was right to have concerns. All bar one of the four or five people who came forward could not help me after all. The reason being they hadn’t claimed on a protection policy after being diagnosed with cancer.
It wasn’t that they wanted to talk about the cancer but didn’t want to share personal details, like how much their payout was. I would have understood that, as culturally, our finances are something we don’t shout publicly about. They just hadn’t made any claims that they could talk about.
I was still surprised at the number of people who had wanted to help me hadn’t made a protection claim
I know that some low-grade cancers are not covered by today’s critical-illness (CI) plans, for example, and that may have been a factor. But I was still surprised at the number of people who had wanted to help me with the article but hadn’t made a protection claim.
I’m no expert, but I’d have expected at least one other person to have claimed on income protection (IP), for example. It’s not inconceivable to be unable to work while receiving treatment and recovering.
The only logical conclusion I can make is that even people who work in financial services are relying on things like company sick pay, their partner’s income and maybe a bit of savings rather than protection policies when diagnosed with a serious illness.
If that is the case, we need to ensure those who work in financial services but who perhaps do not come into contact with the advice side, have some awareness and knowledge of the protection basics.
Making personal use of professional skills is something that most people could probably be better at
As I write this, I’ve realised it’s not specifically a ‘protection problem’. I’m sure there are plenty of people who work in financial services who are not doing as much as they should in relation to retirement planning, for example. Even those who know they could do more.
It’s like that whole thing about builders having the worst house on the street because they’re so busy working on everyone else’s house – making personal use of professional skills is something that most people could probably be better at.
But as I learned from researching that feature, protection policies like CI and IP have other useful benefits on top of the payouts they provide that people won’t necessarily know about until they have a policy.
Phil Jeynes, for example, talked about the speed and convenience of seeing a virtual GP in his hotel room while at a conference. That appointment led to a quick referral for diagnostic tests, so there was just two weeks between his diagnosis of colon cancer and surgery to remove it.
As he says in the article I wrote, speed is of the essence when dealing with cancer. So, anything we can do to get the process moving quickly has to be a good thing.
I’ve found people in the industry have just wanted to get on with what needs to be done when touched by cancer
Speaking to LifeSearch claims expert Lisa Kelly about her husband Jon’s experience with bowel cancer revealed pretty much the same thing.
As Kelly worked as a LifeSearch adviser when Jon was diagnosed, she dealt with his private medical insurance and CI claims. They both just wanted to get through the medical and claims processes as quickly as possible so Jon could get on the road to recovery – with no ‘bells and whistles’.
Generally speaking, I’ve found people in the industry have just wanted to get on with what needs to be done when touched by cancer. Thomson, Jeynes and Kelly were all aware of added-value benefits such as the nurse-led support from organisations such as Reframe Cancer and RedArc. But none of them felt they needed this kind of support, although knowing it was there was reassuring.
We’re all different and will take away different things from the various benefits on offer. That is very different to working in financial services and not having any cover in place.
Without the ability to attract and retain a good – and healthy – workforce, employers will have no businesses
Last year, I wrote a feature for Money Marketing about employee benefits and part of that looked at what advice firms could do for their staff in terms of financial wellbeing. I’d assumed working at an advice firm would put someone at an advantage, until it was pointed out to me that staff may not have the knowledge, confidence or skills to sort out their finances if they work in the HR department, for example.
In that feature, I spoke to Quayside Wealth Management and I was impressed at how the financial wellbeing programme they run for corporate clients is also made available to its own staff.
I know there are so many burdens on employers at the moment and that list of requirements seems to get bigger every year. But without the ability to attract and retain a good – and healthy – workforce, employers will have no businesses.
Enabling staff to tap into the education and guidance on offer to clients is a great idea that more firms should be thinking about.
