Toni Smith is sales operations director at First Complete
It’s peak holiday season as I write this, and if you haven’t already been away, chances are you’re about to. One of the many good things about taking time out is that we tend to see things in a different perspective and while we’re either lying on a beach reading a book or out sightseeing many of us find that we also reflect on our lives and businesses – are we heading in the right direction in our careers? Do we have the right business model in place with the right resources? Are we providing the right service and are our skills up to scratch? These may be just some of the things that you end up reflecting on.
Chances are that while our clients are away they are also doing the same and going through a similar process. Perhaps their thinking might be slightly different however, maybe focusing on what they want for themselves and for their families. What this means if you’re an adviser is that post holiday period can be a very good time to get in touch with clients from a protection point of view.
If a person has been reflecting on what they want for their family while they have been away, this is likely to still be top of mind for them when you speak to them and it may well be the perfect time to make sure they have the family protection that they need. Some insurance providers offer free child cover if a child were to become critically ill. This could prove absolutely vital in enabling a parent to stop working for a while in order to care for the child and take them to hospital appointments without the worry of how they are going to manage financially if they have to give up their job for a period of time.
At this time of year mortgage figures typically take a dip too as people focus on taking a break rather than taking out a mortgage and this has already been backed up by the latest Bank of England statistics showing mortgage completions dropping slightly in June after the boom of the past few months. Almost certainly this will be a temporary dip over the holiday period before continuing the upward trajectory again in September, however this year the dip could be a blessing in disguise.
This could prove an ideal time for mortgage brokers to revisit clients following the completion of a mortgage where protection business was not taken out at the time. This slight lull in mortgage activity is the time when you can revisit those mortgage clients to fulfil your promises and make sure that every pound of lending is a pound protected, to ensure that the client can stay in the house they’ve worked so hard to move into.
In some cases it won’t be a new purchase but a remortgage onto a lower rate that you’ve put in place, so what will you be advising the client to do with the spare cash, will you take it as an opportunity to take a holistic look at the client’s priorities for themselves and their families to ensure that they have the protection in place to look after the things that are most important to them?
Over the holiday period the chances are that we are not the only ones thinking long and hard on the way forwards. Lenders and protection provides are likely to be going through a similar process so I expect to see a raft of innovative new rates and products come September / October time.
With all going as well as it has been recently it looks like it will be a busy fourth quarter, so maybe we should all use the summer months wisely to put our businesses in order and do the things that are most important and not just urgent.
