Our latest podcast featuring Cavendish Ware’s Roy Mcloughlin hears from fellow industry stalwart Emma Thomson .

A short read, or 52 min listen.

After almost two decades at LifeSearch, two years as product strategist at British Friendly, founding chair of the Women in Protection Network and having been inaugural chair of the Protection Distributors Group, there isn’t much Emma Thomson hasn’t seen regarding the UK protection sector.

Now head of protection and GI propositions at Sesame Bankhall Group, we talk about the benefits of having such a rich and varied perspective in order to truly understand the market, the protection sector’s evolution, needs of the client and how protection is sold and the role of the reinsurance market. Sharing those standpoints will help deliver a better experience, wherever you stand in the value chain, they agree.

Benefiting from Roy’s stance at the client coalface, the discussion ranges from barriers to take-up, technology, added value benefits and the assumptions often made about underserved groups in society.

Finally, as well as banging the drum for clients, Emma shares her own experience as a multiple policy claimant when ‘that thing that never happens to you’, happened.

“Please review your cover and that of your clients to make sure they didn’t just take out a policy 10 years ago and never actually looked at it since… if they’re changing jobs, review it. You might think, ‘Oh, it’s only a few months in the probation period. But I’m proof that bad stuff can happen in that time period…”

A fitting interview to follow last week’s insightful Income Protection Awareness Week, and – October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month – perhaps Emma’s own story will inspire you to pick up the phone to your clients and suggest a review of their cover.