Clive Waller, co-chairman of IPTF, said: “We produced a draft charter for the industry in April at our summit meeting. But we felt there was a real need to find out what leading consumer organisations felt needed to be done to make the product clearer and more comprehensible to the public. And we wanted to find out what needed to be done to ensure we are treating all buyers of the product fairly.”
Co-chairman Peter Le Beau said: “We are developing a three-point action plan for income protection. Firstly we are unveiling the consumer charter. Secondly we are keen to continue the dialogue to have simple income protection included in the first wave of simple products. And thirdly we will be publishing in the Spring a publication, Signposts for Income Protection, which outlines the key challenges income protection faces and the solutions necessary to increase sales of the product to levels that it should attain.”
Le Beau added: “The product has been languishing for far too long and we sense a real window of opportunity to increase understanding of the value of the product and the sales it can achieve.”
Discussions with a number of organisations are ongoing and IPTF expects to publish its findings in the middle of January.
