Legal and General has become the latest high-profile insurer to join CIExpert’s adviser portal, Insight Zone.
It follows Zurich, Vitality and the Guardian who have recently signed up with the protection platform.
CIExpert said the addition of L&G on its Insight Zone will mean that advisers have more policy information and tools at their fingertips to promote meaningful client conversations as part of annual reviews for Consumer Duty.
CIExpert director Alan Lakey said: “After more than a decade as the UK’s leading critical illness cover comparison tool it is heart-warming to see an increasing number of advisers putting behind them the days of selling on price and condition numbers and instead seeing the benefits of seeking solutions for their clients driven by the best outcome available to them within their own budget limits.
“In the past few years, advisers have been faced with a pandemic, rising interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis creating challenges outside of their control, so I was unsure how the industry would react to the introduction of the new Consumer Duty regulation too.
“Evidence to date suggests that Consumer Duty is driving an outcome where an increasing number of advisers will engage in protection product selection in a much more qualitative manner.”
Legal & General retail director of intermediary Julie Godley added: “Providing advisers with the information and knowledge they need to ensure their clients get the best possible advice is central to everything we do.
“The range of interactive tools CIExpert have developed as part of their Insight Zone helps advisers explain how the flexibility of Legal & General’s protection plans can help deliver good customer outcomes when their clients need it most.”
CIExpert has attributed the success of its adviser portal to the increasing appetite of advisers for independent tools that support client interaction in virtual settings such as provided by Teams & Zoom.
It added that the ability to explain policy features using visually interactive tools and to articulate the options and their recommendations via a screen in an engaging way has become increasingly important.
It also said that it has seen a market uplift with adviser firms seeking solutions to the regular reviews that form a key element of their Consumer Duty obligations as it enables them to assess the ‘fair value’ of the client’s protection products.
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