Adviser Thumbs-up on Value of Health and Wellness Programs

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A landmark survey has established advisers are mostly supportive of life company health and wellness programs and particularly favour those which offer premium rate discounts.

Conducted in September by Strategic Insight (formerly Plan For Life), the researcher’s findings in its Adviser Survey on Health and Wellness 2016 make for interesting reading.

Advisers generally support the emergence of life company health and wellness programs, but there appears to be an inconsistency in the take-up of that support within the adviser community.

Based on the researcher’s premise that there exists a global trend among insurers to encourage consumers to get more physically fit and stay in good health, it asked 200 advisers what life companies should be doing to promote customer health and wellness.

The results delivered a mixed set of of outcomes, where the most popular response was to be found in the 20% of advisers who nominated premium rate discounts as their preference.

At the same time, however, the next highest response was from those who were unsure about the answer (17%), followed by 14% who said they were unaware of available programs. This indicates an ‘awareness inconsistency’ within adviser ranks, which may relate to the nature of the adviser’s client proposition and how they seek to add value. This chart is taken from Strategic Insight’s report:

161018-si-survey

In other key findings, Strategic Insight reports that 41% of advisers have identified greater visibility of health and wellness programs as a major issue. Respondents said they want to see more marketing and promotion of health and wellness initiatives by insurers, especially advertising directed towards young people.

Looking specifically at premium discounts, the survey revealed affordability of premiums to be an important issue, together with linking identifiable actual client health measures (such as BMI levels, diabetes indicators, waist circumference and blood pressure) to discounted premiums.

The survey revealed other suggestions from advisers as to how health and wellness programs could add value included:

  • Annual reassessments to show health improvement
  • Discounts offered to clients who do not claim due to health issues
  • Education around healthy eating and exercise
  • Discounts to health clubs
  • Free healthy eating books, check-ups and activities
  • Healthy lifestyle events