Protection Guru to host bi-monthly Consumer Duty alliance protection forums

October 24, 2024

The Consumer Duty Alliance (CDA) has today announced that Protection Guru, the specialist technical information service for life insurance advisers, will hold bi-monthly virtual forums for CDA members to help demystify protection advice for wealth firms and identify how they can define the best strategy for clients’ needs in these areas.

These events will compliment Protection Guru’s existing monthly Protection Forums and the AdviceTech Forums already chaired for the CDA by Protection Guru founder Ian McKenna.

Commenting on these new events, Consumer Duty Alliance CEO Keith Richards said “The recent announcement of the Pure Protection review has made it clear that the FCA sees Protection as a key part of the advice landscape and core to Consumer Duty obligations. In recent years, however, many wealth firms have understandably focused on clients’ retirement planning needs, resulting in a general reduction in the level of Protection business written across the sector. Ian has worked successfully with us running our AdviceTech Forums and I’m delighted he has agreed to put a similar structure in place, to help support how our members re-engage with Protection”.

McKenna added: “We have been running our Protection and AdviceTech events for many years. When I accepted Keith’s invitation to chair the CDA AdviceTech events, it was important to create something complimentary but different. While our own forums have focused on firms at the leading edge of technology deployment, the CDA AdviceTech sessions aim to help firms wanting to embrace technology but needing more support and guidance earlier in their journey. This has worked well, and we have seen several firms accelerate their plans via this structure. Providing the same support for wealth advisers in Protection is a natural next step.”

The initial CDA Protection Forum will take place from 12:00-13:00 on Tuesday, 29^th October. Speakers will include CDA Chief Executive Keith Richards, who will address why it is essential for advisers to decide how they wish to address protection needs; Emma Thomson, last week’s recipient of the “Dedication to Protection” award, and newly promoted LifeSearch Head of Product Alan Richardson. Each speaker will share their extensive experience of the subject. The session will be chaired by Protection Guru founder Ian McKenna. Advisers can register to participate from this link.

The second CDA Protection Forum will take place on Monday, 16^th December and will focus on why it is essential Business Protection is both a crucial advice area and a huge opportunity for wealth advisers.