Speaking at today's Protection Review annual conference in London Pacific Life Re's Warren Copp said there is a clear "correlation between [policy] lapse and contact with the client" which he said was an underlying reason providers were "not as good as we should be" at managing protection customers through their lives.
He said: "There are spikes in lapse when you contact clients annually and remind them they have life insurance - they often think they don't need it anymore.
"That probably has meant it's not been a priority for providers. It's an underlying reason."
Copp conceded it shouldn't be a reason not to engage with clients though.
The admission came in response to Ian McKenna of F&TRC revealing he is working on technology to help advisers and providers stay in touch with clients regularly after the point of sale.
He said advisers were calling for better "ongoing dialogue" with their clients and suggested the Protection Forum was engaged in a piece of work to promote this.
The panel of speakers also debated how technology could support protection sales with many speakers hoping "better" technology and informational apps would prompt more people to buy the insurance.
But Wallace Dobbin from Intrinsic warned: "Technology on its own will not stimulate customers to buy protection.
"Distribution has to be the key to unlocking the conundrum - however it's delivered."
Alan Newman, industry consultant and director of the Finance IT Network, said providers and advisers must start using technology to "follow" the customer journey better.
And he added: "There isn't one customer journey - I think that's a myth. We all have multiple journeys when buying protection and they're fragmented.
"I think the industry needs to get better at following those journeys.
"It's also a myth that people don't buy protection, that it has to be sold.
"We do buy life insurance but for other people. The protection industry has to think about the family as the unit that buys protection - not the individual."
