You may recall that last year AMI, along with sponsors Legal and General and Royal London, launched AMI Viewpoint ‘The New Protection Challenge’, underpinned by research involving 500 mortgage advisers and 5,000 consumers.

This, to our knowledge, was the largest piece of mortgage protection research carried out to date. The reason I say to date is that we’d love to have even more mortgage advisers taking part in our 2021 Viewpoint survey. Ultimately it will be firms and advisers that benefit from the views that we collect, so the more responses the better informed the research will be. We’ll be sharing the survey link with members and on our social media pages.

For AMI the standout statistic from our 2020 research was that 97% of mortgage advisers mention protection as part of the mortgage process but only 36% of consumers recall the conversation. Feedback from industry was that the research generated much discussion, particularly around the topic of memorable protection conversations and what it means to ‘raise’ protection. We’ll be re-asking these questions – and others – as part of this year’s research but will also delve into new areas to bring fresh insight and views.

Knowing what consumers really think and understand is at the heart of successful advised sales.  Protection is complex and needs intervention by advisers to engineer proper solutions.

I’m excited and intrigued to see what this year’s research tells us. For those that want a refresher or missed last year’s report and event, they are still available to view on the AMI website.

Stacy Reeve, AMI Senior Policy Advisor
September 2021