Protection Watch... with Kevin Carr (May 2014)

1. Falling down As many experts predicted, protection sales fell sharply in 2013. According to Swiss Re, income protection sales declined by 24% and fell below 100,000 new policies for the first time in a decade. Critical illness sales declined by 21%, while sales of term assurance fell by 17%. The reasons for the drop in sales are largely attributed to price rises, which occurred at the end of 2012, primarily caused by the gender directive, which reduced much of the switching and rebroking of protection policies to save money, as rates for many people have since become more expensive. ...