The PPP - Not Just the Money

Not Just the Money

For the penultimate episode of season 6 of the Practical Protection Podcast, Kathryn is joined by Matt Rann to discuss value added benefits.

Value added benefits are the little extras that insurers tend to offer with protection insurance policies. Whilst these aren’t ‘free’ as such, there isn’t an added cost, these come included with the cost of your policy. These aren’t contractual, meaning the insurer can change these at any point if they wish, it also means they could remove them too. 

The things made available to you will depend on the insurer that you use. You could be given access to things such as:

• Remote access to a UK GP
• Second medical opinion services on a diagnosis or treatment
• Nutrition and fitness experts
• Mental health support
• Annual health MOTs

Kathryn gives some examples of where value added benefits really have proved beneficial. Kathryn speaks about a man who had been feeling unwell but doctors gave no real cause for this, with it being the lead up to Christmas and colds and alike are normally ripe. From using the second medical opinion service made available to him, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Without this added benefit, who knows how long this may have gone unnoticed. 

Matt gives his thoughts about value added benefits. Over the past 5 years specifically, insurers have upped their game trying to provide services which will truly help their clients. 

Prevention is better than a cure, so insurers offering these services may also benefit themselves, as a client may not need to go as far as making a claim if these services have helped to prevent a diagnosis. 

As an adviser, considering value added benefits can be an important part of a recommendation. For instance, it could be that you’ve found a suitable protection insurance policy, but for just a few pounds more there is a policy which comes with value added benefits. Ultimately, it is the customers decision, but there can be huge benefits of taking the policy with added benefits. Kathryn makes a point of always giving both of these options, and explaining them thoroughly, so that an informed decision can be made.

Kathryn also gives another example of the real benefits of value added benefits. When on holiday with her family, Kathryn put her value added benefits to good use for her young son. Whilst in Malta, they had a video consultation with a UK GP. This took away all of the worries about having to potentially visit a doctor whilst on holiday, and meant that things were quickly cleared up once they returned back to the UK.

Whilst there are so many different types of value added benefits, and they really can be great, the key thing for Kathryn is that when we see mental health support, it’s normally a number to call, but that doesn’t really give clues about what sort of support they are actually going to give. There are times that people could be turned away as their mental health symptoms are ‘too strong’ and the teams are not trained to handle such situations. It’s things like this which Kathryn thinks could be improved on.

To catch what else was discussed in this episode, you can listen to this episode below or on the Practical Protection Podcast website.

Remember, if you have listened to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on the website, thanks to the podcasts sponsors Octo Members.

If you would like to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at Kathryn’s Protection Insurance in Practice course.

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