Why Real Life Cover?

It’s almost a bizarre achievement that life insurance has changed little from the founding of Equitable Life in 1762. Whilst medicine, technology, life expectancy and lifestyle have advanced out of all proportion, we are effectively selling an 18th century protection product for 21st century lifestyle protection!

Today’s customers bring with them unprecedented levels of debt and lifestyle expectations, yet we respond to them with dusty products from the vaults, largely unchanged over several centuries. Our life protection product mix, now more than ever, is limited to death only cover. Is this the best we can expect from a 21st century insurer? Is this truly treating customers fairly?

Perhaps the price of regulation has led to intermediaries playing it safe in providing advice and, not surprisingly, it also caused an upswing in non-advised sales. Either way, we over-focus on the remote possibility of dying, rather than the riskier business of living.

Now more than ever, people need effective protection to maintain their living standards. Now more than ever we need 21st century protection to meet 21st century needs.

What an enormous opportunity we’re missing. But instead of innovating our way towards meeting clear market needs profitably, we serve up the same me-too solutions. The only point of difference? A point or two shaved off the rates. Such commoditisation is normally the mark of a dying industry.

We’ve spoken with many leading figures in the industry. Almost without exception, no one’s happy with the way things are; we could be doing so much better. Better for ourselves, but also better for our customers, offering them imaginative solutions that are fairer, easier and which actually reflect real life.

Hence Real Life Cover. We believe the time has come to think and act differently, and change the course of our future.