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The Life Insurance Market
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Critical illness cover is one of the least popular forms of financial cover available today, and new research highlights the need to consider the assurance.
Financial comparison site Confused.com has found that only 23 per cent of people have critical illness cover, to provide for them should they contract an illness or condition.
Most worryingly, one in five people say the reason they don’t have critical illness cover is because they feel employer-based payouts or state benefits will offer them enough security, should they become too ill to work.
Confused.com is urging people to reconsider this idea, since many have misunderstood how little this could provide, in comparison to the cost of running a home.
Head of life insurance at Confused.com, Matthew Lloyd, says: "With so little savings to fall back on it's important that people consider how they would manage and plan for an illness." 
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Life insurance premiums could be sold at more competitive prices for residents of one south-west town, thanks to the distribution of kits designed to detect bowel cancer.
The self-test kits are being sent to all men and women in their 60s currently living in the town of Swindon, in Wiltshire.
Bowel cancer is the third most common form of the disease in the UK, with more than eight out of ten bowel cancer cases being suffered by people aged 60 or over.
People living in the town would be advised to compare life insurance, as health bosses say more than 100 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year, resulting in an average of 43 deaths.
Spokesperson from NHS Swindon, Frances Mayes, said: "If bowel cancer is detected at an early stage, there is over a 90 per cent chance of survival." 
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At last I can support the FSA’s approach to an issue!
For years this blogger and his business have called on them to raise standards amongst the myriad ‘pop-up’ protection telesales bucket shops. Rest assured those who sell as non-advisers, but who have telesales people ‘guiding’ customers, are the group that will find these burdens most onerous. If they comply they will end up facing questions that can only be answered by advice and will have to refuse to speak most every time. The result might be to remove CIC sales and by extension those of many other protection products from the non-advised telesales area altogether, which would be 10 years overdue, but nonetheless wonderful!
LifeSearch is we think the biggest ICOBS adviser in the UK, though there are many bigger CIC sales operations that do so without advice online and over the phone. So we helped the FSA with their consultation at the outset, though we have been told that we were not one of the 11 firms listened in to. Nonetheless it will take real focus to make certain we meet such formalised requirements every time. The “Dear Compliance Officer” letter sent yesterday to all ICOBS firms starts a 6 month tightening up process. It reveals the logic behind the ‘CIC sales scripting’ work the ABI did recently with AIFA’s help, and has meant formalising what good advisers do, and ensuring it is done every time. At LifeSearch we’ll have this right within the six months grace we have all been allowed, and I’d urge every adviser to embrace these higher standards and adapt the advisory process accordingly.
I say every adviser, as while the rules outlined in this letter apply to ICOBS only, that is presumably because COBS advisers are deemed to be doing it right already in their face to face sales. That’s certainly not true of all COBS advisers, as CIC and IP and other similar covers are complex products to explain properly unless one advises on them day in, day out. I think though written disclosure is good enough for COBS sales in the FSA’s eyes, though perhaps it would be sensible for COBS advisers to use the letter to form their basic verbal disclosure standard as there is no doubt that clients listen more effectively than they read when it comes to financial services.
In the end the industry has failed to police itself. All of us need to work out how to obey the rules without making the process one that leaves people buying less CIC than they did, and to extend this learning to all protection products. If this arduous effort proves too much for many, then it is to be hoped the rest can grow to fill the gap. And that will depend in large part on how much providers are prepared to invest in good distributors as opposed to pay away to bad ones. Don’t say I didn’t tell you!
Tom Baigrie
LifeSearch
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As many as six out of ten consumers in the UK do not have any form of financial protection, according to one provider of life insurance.
The new Financial Safety Net Report from Scottish Provident found 31 per cent of respondents said they would have to cut back, if the main breadwinner in their family suffered a drop in earnings.
Off the back of the results of this survey Scottish Provident is lobbying UK advisors to support their campaign to encourage consumers to seek financial advice and create their own financial safety net.
The study found that while 35 per cent of people have life insurance, the figures for critical illness cover and income protection stand at just 13 and 9 per cent, respectively.
Head of marketing at Scottish Provident, Susan Barclay, says "with the majority of Britons without any form of protection in place, many are taking a substantial risk with their family's livelihoods." 
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Critical illness cover may be of huge benefit to the victims of a stroke, a new survey reveals the extent to which survivors struggle with higher living costs.
The research provided by the Stroke Association shows the value of critical illness cover as 33 per cent of patients say they were forced to spend money on adapting their homes to accommodate their disability.
Higher utility bills are also a factor, since more is spent on heating because people are at home during the day for longer periods.
Income protection cover would also provide the one in five survivors of a stroke who said they had experienced a loss of earnings
Director of communications at the Stroke Association, Joe Korner, said: "This report paints a bleak picture of stroke survivors struggling to make ends meet." 
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Today’s consumers in the UK are undervaluing their livelihood when it comes to life insurance, according to one leading research firm.
A study by Datamonitor found that many customers put too great an emphasis on price when they compare life insurance.
This could of course leave their loved ones exposed to financial hardship should they lose their jobs, become ill, or even worse.
The research reveals that only 11.2 per cent chose comprehensive life insurance because of what is offered in the policy.
Meanwhile, as little as 3.6 per cent of people examine the features of a product when they compare life insurance.
Life and pensions analyst at Datamonitor, Mya Myat Moe, said: "Consumers don’t realise that now more than ever, they need to ensure they have the right sort of cover for protection."
She says this practise should apply across life insurance, critical illness and income protection cover. 
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Sickness insurance could be one of the few ways in which consumers could tackle the winter vomiting bug set to hit the UK this winter.
Data from NHS Direct and the Health Protection Agency shows twelve hospital wards were closed at the start of November because they were overwhelmed by the outbreaks.
The reason for the recent warning is caused by the volume of calls to NHS Direct's advice line breaching the 4.8 per cent threshold the body has set for conditions which need special attention.
Income protection could provide assurances for people who work at organisations which offer a limited amount of sick days, as the norovirus can hit some people harder than others.
The virus can even result in death for the elderly and vulnerable, and life insurance will provide peace of mind for this situation. 
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People without life insurance or critical illness cover in the UK may begin to see the merits of such protection when they consider the discrepancies in quality of care for cancer patients across the country.
CancerPartnersUK is an independent body founded by cancer treatment experts.
Medical director for the organisation, Karol Sikora, said that while the standard of dealing with cancer patients in Britain has improved, there still remains a regional variation in access to treatment.
Mr Sikora also believes that men should take better care of themselves to improve their level of treatment – something which critical illness cover could help with.
He says: "Men don't talk about their problems, they don't worry so much about them, so the quality of care that they get is probably not as good as the quality of care that women get." 
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New research on diet and lung cancer could see critical illness insurance and life insurance become easier to obtain.
The Europe-wide study – published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention - found that eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day can cut the risk of developing lung cancer by 23 per cent.
Although the benefits of a balanced diet are well-known in respect of other cancers, a link with lung cancer had not previously been demonstrated.
Moreover, the benefits were also shown to be effective in smokers.
"For every two additional units of different kinds of fruits and vegetables in the diet, the risk of lung cancer falls significantly by 3 per cent," explained Maria Jose Sanchez Perez, one of the study's authors.
"So if smokers increase the variety of fruit they eat they could have a lower risk of developing this type of cancer."
Critical illness cover and life insurance have long been very difficult for smokers to obtain, because of the risk of lung cancer they face, but this discovery could have the effect of making these kinds of insurance more available to them. 
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So Click has given up selling life insurance over the phone. Tempting though it is to look back, my chief concern now, is that there are numerous small ‘Click-clones’ springing up, all with the same fundamental model of telephone selling without being regulated so as to allow proper advice to be given. The result can only be that salespeople get no training and no knowledge (they are not allowed to use it after all), just a sales target to hit. And that is the very best recipe for consumer detriment.
That the FSA enforcement team has not put a stop to the worst examples of this abuse is a great shame. Hopefully they will start now, but in the meantime each provider should confirm that they make sure they understand every such seller’s process and subject them to regular mystery shops. That’ll show that providers nowadays care about their market, rather than solely about new business volumes. And while they cogitate on that, I’d ask all advising intermediaries to join the Specialist Protection Advisers group on Linked In and blog about any concerns they have with named non-advising telephone sellers. There is no reason why we can’t police our own turf and tell providers and regulators of our views.
Lastly, Click’s quoted comments about indemnity commission are wrong. It is just one business reality amongst many in an over supplied market affected by consumer apathy, a recession and a price war. As all costs in a protection sale, whether advised or not, arise during the marketing, advising and underwriting period at the start; indemnity commission is entirely appropriate. Its clawback becomes more of an issue the weaker your relationship is with a client, and the less value you add at the point of sale, but those are core management failings that are always punished no matter your model.
Tom Baigrie, LifeSearch MD
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Posted by @
08:20 PM, November 24
I consider Ray's indemnity jibe to be a complete red herring. Click needed indemnity to fund its cash-flow. Had it attempted to work on drip-feed it would have gone years earlier.
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Critical illness cover and even life insurance, are expected to become a higher priority for UK consumers.
That's because it was revealed some doctors may be avoiding having to talk about sensitive issues.
Research from life insurance provider Aviva says that time constraints could be one of the reasons Britons are dealing with problems such as obesity and alcohol misuse, head-on.
The findings come from the most recent Health of the Workplace study, from the insurer.
It was found another reason for doctors backing away from other topics such as smoking and personal hygiene was because they didn’t want to embarrass patients, or hurt their feelings.
A worrying two in five doctors are said to be apprehensive when it comes to telling a patient they are obese – one of the biggest causes of illness in the UK.
Given the widely publicised debate surrounding the funding of public health recently, protection such as sickness insurance would offer peace of mind. 
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UK experts on cancer have welcomed a development in Germany which could see premiums cost less when consumers compare life insurance.
Nanoparticles containing anti-cancer drugs have been developed which are able to navigate past the natural blocking defences held inside the brain.
The nanocarrier is contained inside a tiny capsule and was found to be capable of smuggling the treatment past anti-attack barriers in the brains of mice.
British cancer experts say that drugs which can reach the inner workings of the brain are needed urgently.
Many are hopeful this could help reduce the amount of claims that need to be made on life insurance and critical illness cover.
Compared to untreated mice, the nanocarrier reduced the surface area of tumours by almost three-quarters – with the researchers noting that side-effects felt by the mice were minimal. 
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Critical illness cover could be in greater demand than ever, after the NHS was criticised for admitting too many cancer cases through A&E and neglecting aftercare.
A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) published this week says these admissions into A&E have doubled during the period between the year 2000 and 2009.
Figures from the Audit Office show 140,000 cases entered A&E in the final year of analysis.
Macmillan Cancer Support says this is the result of patients not receiving an adequate level of care following major treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The NAO also say it has only 'limited assurance' that the £6.2 billion spent on care for the disease was worthwhile and allocated in the right way.
This will no doubt encourage many consumers without critical illness insurance to invest in the cover, to put their minds at ease. 
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A medical breakthrough has been made in Scotland which could offer hope to the victims of stroke and lower the premiums within critical illness cover.
That's because a Glasgow man in his 60s is the first patient in the history of medicine to receive the injection of stem cells into his brain following a stroke.
The foetal stem cells used in the procedure are hoped to repair the damaged nerve tissue, caused by the event of a stroke.
Although only preformed at trial level and not expected to render any immediate results, the treatment could mean that critical illness cover proves less costly in years to come.
With over 60,000 deaths each year in the UK being caused by strokes, consumers falling within the age group where strokes are most likely to occur would do well to invest in life insurance cover, for peace of mind. 
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Life insurance claims could occur less frequently in the future if planned trials pitching specialised cancer drugs against other tumours, prove to be successful.
The drugs in question are currently available on the NHS and could be used to treat various forms of cancer – a development which could see the cost of critical illness cover fall in years to come.
Researchers at Compendia Bioscience found that medicines such as Herceptin which is commonly used to treat breast cancer, and lung cancer drug Iressa, could be used elsewhere after similarities were found across certain types of tumours.
This could mean the forms of cancer which critical illness cover accounts for - such as brain, breast, lung, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer – could hopefully lead to fewer fatalities.
For now though, people worried about how cancer could change their lives or those of their dependants should get income protection insurance in case the worst happens. 
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When she first contacted us, the client was under-insured through her bank with an expensive Life Insurance policy, plus an Accident, Sickness Unemployment) ASU policy.
We replaced her life plan with a Fortis policy for £250,000 over 31 years, which would cover her mortgage payments. We also wrote this policy into trust. The client's previous policy had not been written into trust and there was a potential IHT liability.
Next we turned to Income Protection (IP) and Critical Illness (CIC) to replace ASU. IP (index-linked) was a priority for the client as she earns a large salary. We chose to put her with LV= as we knew they would only rate the client 50% for her high blood pressure, a better underwriting stance than any other provider.
However, the policy was also chosen because at that time LV= was offering free CIC with each IP policy sold. The CIC payout would be 3x the monthly IP sum assured of £1500. The client was very specific that she had a limited budget, which meant a choice between IP and CIC. In addition, all LifeSearch policies come with free access to Red Arc, the care and counselling service.
The client was diagnosed with cancer 5 months later and LV= successfully paid out on their free CIC policy. The CIC payout was £4,500, whereas previously she would have received nothing. She has now been off work for several months and will soon begin to claim on her IP policy too.
The client also claimed on her Red Arc policy, which is an ancillary benefit. The counselling nurse has helped her emotionally and also suggested new medications to try to help her through her illness.
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Critical illness cover and life insurance may be an even greater priority than ever, as it became apparent that a quarter of all cancers only become evident at a late stage.
The National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) found, this week, that one in four cases of the disease are only realised when the patient is admitted for emergency treatment.
Although early treatment is vital in fighting cancer, this is not always possible – and critical illness insurance can provide support at such times.
The need for consumers to compare life insurance is highlighted in figures from the NCIN.
In 2007, 23 per cent of newly diagnosed cases entered the health system with emergency status.
Meanwhile, 25 per cent of patients were diagnosed through the 'Two Week Wait' GP referral.
This shows the merits of critical illness insurance to cover private medical bills, so patients don’t always have to wait. 
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The leading lights of the life insurance industry have been honoured by the 2010 Health Insurance Awards, held earlier this week at the Grosvenor House Hotel, on Park Lane.
The good news for consumers considering sickness insurance or critical illness cover is that most of the insurers who attended did win at least one award in one of the categories.
Aviva UK Health took home the award for Best Group Medical Insurance, while PruProtect won the individual critical illness insurance award.
The event highlighted the good work of what are among the best life insurance providers in the country, and the 800 or so guests from the industry were hosted by comedian Patrick Kielty.
Representatives of the life insurance awards ceremony said: "The night was testament to the resilience of the industry, which has weathered 12 months of economic uncertainty in remarkably good shape". 
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News on heart problems among women this week could mean the increasing amount of women in high stress roles, should look to invest in critical illness cover.
Researchers from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, found that women performing in high stress jobs have increased risk of heart problems.
The study shows the risk of cardiovascular disease goes up 40 per cent among female patients, when they undertake demanding jobs.
The 88 per cent increased risk of a heart attack such individuals face, will serve as a reminder for people considering life insurance.
The researchers define job strain as a form of psychological stress in a role which does not allow for the expression of a person's creative or individual skills.
Considering just how many jobs like this there currently are in Britain, it might be worth starting to compare life insurance, for peace of mind should the worst happen. 
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Life insurance could become more popular among men as new research reveals why the disease is more common among males than women.
World Cancer Research Fund says British men are more likely to contract the disease due to their poor lifestyle habits – with diet and alcohol the main culprits.
The research finds men are 14 per cent more likely to develop cancer because of them scoring higher on all but one kind of cancer risk criteria.
This means critical illness cover should be a serious consideration due to the increase costs of living during the stages of treatment.
Leader of the study, Dr Rachel Thompson, says "it is a concern that as well as having […] less healthy habits than women, men are also less aware of the potential consequences of these habits." 
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Consumers relying on the NHS could be tempted to take out life insurance or income protection – as concerns emerge over emergency treatments.
In a letter published by the Daily Telegraph, the heads of Royal Colleges have expressed their frustration that pre-booked surgery is given priority over cases from A&E.
The Labour government imposed financial penalties in attempts to reduce the amount of scheduled operations that got cancelled.
The letter notes that more than 60 per cent of elderly patients who did not survive more than a month after surgery had not received adequate care.
Because of potential delays in A&E surgery and the accused lack of focus, sickness insurance would provide good cover on a short-term basis.
Income protection insurance would then provide financial security for as long as 12 months, should emergency surgery not go completely as planned. 
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Life insurance could be set to become a more popular and worthwhile investment as it becomes apparent survival rates for cancer among British women are below the EU average.
The most recent oncology figures for the UK show that British women are more likely to lose a battle with cancer than many of their European counterparts.
Critical illness insurance would provide peace of mind in the face of these concerning findings on cancer care.
Government records say the death rate among British women across all forms of cancer is higher than those found in France, Italy and Portugal.
More positive news was found however, in the analysis that death rates for breast cancer patients had fallen by 3.7 per cent, since the year 2000.
Income protection cover would be a wise investment in light of this news, due to the financial security it would provide while treatment is underway. 
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Income protection may be taken up by more people in the face of uncertainty over mortgages.
The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that arrears and repossessions for mortgages continued to fall in the third quarter.
Despite this positive news for homeowners, the 40 per cent cuts in support for mortgage interest may prompt some people to consider income insurance.
The CML say this support should be sustained through 2011, although it remain unsure as to whether this will come to pass.
Director general of the CML, Michael Coogan said that while British households are quick to adapt, this depends on "the extent to which income falls or mortgage costs rise, and how soon they can get back into full employment."
With jobs in particular under threat, income protection would offer homesteads in the UK security and peace of mind. 
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Critical illness cover could well prove essential for thousands of the ageing population in years to come.
Research by the NHS has found that the amount of people suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, is set to rise by 70 per cent within the next two decades.
Although typically suffered by the elderly, critical illness insurance would help deal with things like medical bills, in old age.
Sickness insurance would also help the loved ones of dementia sufferers take care of paying for the expense of care homes.
The NHS has predicted nursing homes will be the places most families will resort to, when trying to help elderly relatives suffering from the condition – and critical illness insurance would offer financial security in these unfortunate circumstances. 
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The amount of consumers in the UK making searches for life insurance and critical illness cover over the internet, has gone up almost 40 per cent since the new year.
Financial advice website unbiased.co.uk says that online searches for protection products has increased by 39 per cent since January 2010 - with enquiries into 'group protection' seeing the biggest rise.
The increase in searches for life insurance cover is no doubt a symptom of financial uncertainty in such austere times.
More people in the UK appear to have been researching how to secure financial stability for their immediate family should they die.
Chief Executive of unbiased.co.uk thinks however, there is still a gap in the levels of life insurance held by the average Brit.
He said: "There has never been a better opportunity for IFAs to showcase the value of getting professional advice." 
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The survival rates of cancer patients have received a boost thanks to research which could also see life insurance quotes become more budget friendly.
Cardiff University's Institute of Medical Genetics found, in a study of 2,000 patients with advanced bowel cancer, that people with specific faults in their genetic code lived three months less on average, than patients without the fault.
In the long run such a development could boost survival rates for this type of cancer, meaning those who compare life insurance and critical illness cover, will find premiums at a lower threshold.
That's due to the fact the genetic region involved in this research is thought to increase the activity of local gene, EIF3H – which has been linked in the past to low rates of survival in other forms of cancer. 
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Life insurance may be less expensive for men in future thanks to developments in the treatment of prostate cancer, which could end up saving lives.
The University of Cardiff in Wales has run clinical trials of 1,200 participants in which male patients were given radiation treatment on top of hormonal therapy.
People looking into the possibility of getting critical illness cover will be pleased to learn the addition of radiotherapy resulted in 43 per cent fewer fatalities over a seven year period.
Of the men who had hormone treatment alone, 79 per cent were still living seven years after the trials, whereas those who had radiotherapy had a 90 per cent survival rate.
Despite the improvements in treatments and survival rates - income protection would be a wise move, as a quarter of all new cases of cancer diagnosed in men are found within the prostate. 
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Critical illness insurance could be set to rise in popularity, as the recession has caused fewer people to quit smoking, according to new data.
The 2007 smoking ban has helped lower the amount of smokers in Britain.
Cancer Research UK, however, says the ratio of people trying to stop smoking has slowed since the final six months of 2008.
A third of smokers in 2007 said they had tried to quit within three months of being asked – but that figure fell to 17 per cent by the close of October this year.
In years to come this could well mean that critical illness cover will be needed to provide security for customers suffering from lung cancer – the second most prevalent form of the disease in the UK.
Life insurance cover would ensure that families of lung cancer patients will help their financial livelihood become secured, should the worst happen. 
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The prospects for a 31 year-old cancer sufferer are much improved thanks to the payout received from his income protection policy.
The Daily Mail reports that construction site manager, Alan Jacobs, was battling testicular cancer when his financial adviser alerted him to the fact that he would be able to claim on his income protection and life policy.
Mr Jacobs admits to forgetting about the Scottish Provident critical illness cover he took out eight years ago with his wife Hayley.
For the sum of £63 a month, however, the couple are now £130,000 better off and have managed to set up a trust fund for their young son.
Head of marketing at Scottish Provident, Susan Barclay, said: "Having a critical illness policy in place gives people like Alan the peace of mind that they and their family will be properly cared for." 
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Providers of income protection and critical illness cover Friends Provident has launched a new online tool designed to help sickness insurance customers see what kind of protection is best for them.
The Life Changes online seminar and tool is focused on the life stages a customer goes through and helps people understand how changing lifestyles means the kind of life insurance cover they need may change.
The online seminar considers the lifestyle changes in recent years - such as fewer people buying their first properties and more people starting families later in life.
Head of protection sales at Friends Provident, Ed Stuart-Brown said: "The credit crunch and recession has meant that people are putting off key life events until later on in life or for good."
He added there are many other events that occur in life which could need critical illness cover. 
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Men with erectile dysfunction (ED) may want to consider getting sickness insurance, as the embarrassing condition could be hiding something much more serious.
Research from sexual medicine specialist Dr Stacy Elliott shows that ED can be a warning that the sufferer may be in line for heart conditions.
She told Canadian television that "erectile dysfunction is now being looked at as a canary in the coal mine for cardiovascular disease," and suggests that it could also pre-warn about conditions like diabetes, depression and high blood pressure.
Research shows that half of men in their 50s have issues, as well as a third of 40-somethings and one-in-ten men between 18 and 24 years old.
However, only around a tenth ever sees their doctor about the problem, but doing so and getting sickness insurance may be the best course of action. 
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Vitamin E has often been touted as a way of preventing cardiovascular disease, but doctors have now discovered that taking it could mean you end up needing your critical illness cover.
This is because new research has found that regularly taking vitamin E could actually increase the risk of people suffering a stroke.
Researchers from the US, France and Germany examined the results of nine trials involving more than 100,000 (118,000) people and discovered that their chances of suffering bleeding in the brain increased by almost a quarter (22 per cent).
They add that vitamin E does lower the chances of suffering from an ischaemic stroke by 10 per cent, but the overall risks outweigh the benefits so the "indiscriminate widespread use of vitamin E should be cautioned against".
People who take vitamin E supplements may want to consider getting critical illness cover, in case their stroke risk is increased. 
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Jill Treanor and Simon Bowers writing in Friday’s Guardian quote Redrow, the housebuilder, warning that the FSA’s eager slamming of the stable door might just keep the horse from coming back in after it’s recent escape run.
At a time when the economy needs people to spend and borrow, and society needs them to save and protect, having a regulator clamping down on both Independent Advice (albeit it in the worthy cause of improving it) and on mortgage lending means that the needs of both the economy and society might be being threatened by regulatory hyperactivity.
This would not be a worry if one could look at the FSA and say, “There’s a body that’s properly staffed, with high morale and a clear focus on its priorities, led by people of proven wisdom and shrewd judgement.” I fear though it might be more accurate to say that, “The FSA is losing key middle managers faster than in the past; is fighting on far too many (EC-driven) fronts for it’s reduced manpower; is not refocusing it’s priorities as would a commercial organisation in the same squeeze and, most worryingly, is led by the same leaders that got it all so badly wrong when they led it and us into the credit crunch.” I wonder if the Coalition doesn’t need to manage this vital part of our Financial Services dominated GDP with considerably less laissez faire than they have exhibited to date.
Tom Baigrie, LifeSearch MD
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Beetroot could help people fight off the onset of dementia, meaning that they won't have to claim on their sickness insurance for the disease.
Scientists in America have found that drinking the juice of the purple vegetable can aid blood flow to the brain, which can help prevent shrinkage and other age-related problems.
North Carolina's Wake Forest University discovered that the nitrates in beetroot are turned into nitrites in the mouth and these nitrites can open up the blood vessels, making the flow quicker.
Daniel Kim-Shapiro, who worked on the study, commented that previous reports had linked beetroot to lowering blood pressure too, which will give sickness insurance policy owners even more reason to drink the vegetable's juice. 
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People in England are more likely to claim on their loved ones' life insurance policies than Americans, despite having a much healthier lifestyle.
Research from the Rand Corporation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that people in the US are twice as likely to become diabetic after retirement than their English counterparts, as well as a third more likely to develop cancer.
However Rand's Jim Smith points to Americans' "much more aggressive and expensive health care" being able to cure various ailments, adding that "if English people spent the same amount, [they] would live a lot longer".
Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that America spends 16 per cent of its GDP on health care, compared to 8.7 per cent in England.
As a result, life insurance customers in the USA will be paying into their policy for a few months longer on average. 
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Eating more black raspberries can help prevent bowel cancer, which will boost people with sickness insurance who have a family history of the disease.
Scientists at the University of Illinois in Chicago have discovered that a freeze-dried version of the berry could reduce the number of tumours in mice by 60 per cent and lower the incidence of bowel tumours by 45 per cent.
The new findings back up previous research, which suggested that black raspberries could have antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties.
Dr Wancai Yang from the university remarks that the ready availability of the fruit was one of the reasons why they performed the test, which will bring further reassurance about accessibility of a potentially cancer-preventing solution for sickness insurance customers. 
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Taking daily fish oil supplements may not ultimately prevent you from claiming on your critical illness insurance for dementia, according to new research.
A study at the Oregon Health and Science University has found that patients who took omega-3 daily were as likely to suffer from the onset of Alzheimer's as those who had taken a placebo.
Earlier studies had suggested that the DHA compound, which is found in oily fish, could trigger changes in the brain which would ward off the need to claim on your critical illness cover, but the latest research appears to debunk that.
Dr Joseph Quinn, who led the study, remarks that "these results indicate that DHA supplementation is not useful for the population of individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease." 
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Food producers should be forced to stick to a certain salt level to help people with sickness insurance avoid being struck down by heart disease.
This comes from the University of Queensland, which believes that a mandatory level could be almost 20 times more effective than current voluntary measures.
Many countries, including the UK, have salt-level guidelines and the Australian team believes that this has seen a reduction in heart disease of just under one per cent in their country.
However, they think that if all food manufacturers were made to stick to the guidelines, the figure could be closer to 18 per cent, something that is bound to interest those with sickness insurance.
British experts are unsure of the call for compulsory limits, with the British Heart Foundation's Victoria Taylor noting that this country is making good progress with a voluntary scheme. 
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Providing income protection insurance as part of a menu plan is a very effective way for independent financial advisers to make sure that their clients are covered.
This comes from Defaqto, which has analysed a range of sales techniques for income protection cover and concluded that this is the best one.
Menu plan products rated so highly as they allows advisers to scale down what is offered to the client based on what they can afford and what cover they need.
Defaqto's Ben Heffer notes that the analysts "found that critical illness cover is often seen as a substitute for income protection when actually it should be considered as complementary".
As such, when clients are given their protection options, they shouldn't dismiss income protection as it can provide them with a number of extra benefits. 
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How do we get our positive messages through to the public? It’s something the Protection industry is not very successful at in general. For a start there is a general fear of the media within the industry and an incorrect belief that most journalists are there to try and ‘stitch people up.’ While this may hold true of the tabloid celebrity pages, the financial press is about as far removed from fake sheik stings as possible. On the whole the personal finance press are interested in educating their readers and protection companies should embrace this as an opportunity.
On balance there are more positive protection stories in the consumer press than negative stories. And of those negative stories that are printed, it would seem fair to assume that at least some of them are accurate. We know that the industry works hard to do the right thing by consumers but mistakes do get made, albeit nowhere near as often as consumers tend to imagine.
So why raise this now? Because the Government Spending Review makes it more important than ever that we get the message out there that a personal Protection policy is important. The welfare state cannot be relied on the deliver anything other than the most minimum of safety nets, yet consumers still do not appear to have realised the magnitude of these changes. They don’t realise that their standard of living and repayment on debt like the mortgage would be night on impossible to maintain if welfare payments were needed and solely relied upon.
A journalist who uses social media regularly said in jest recently that ‘Twitter is for egomaniacs whereas Facebook is for voyeurs!’ Although social media is approached by many people with a degree of scepticism, even some of the most dubious (including me) accept the importance of these new mediums of communication in the modern world of PR and journalism. The concern is that, if many people in Protection are struggling to deal with traditional media, how will we, as an industry, cope with social media, which can baffle even the savviest of PRs and marketers.
There is already a Specialist Protection Adviser group on Linked In that debates issues within the insurance world. If we want to get the important messages out there and engage with consumers more fully, these forms of media are a help not a hindrance. They are not that hard to master, and the common sense rules that apply to traditional communications initiatives apply here too.
The Consumer Protection Insurance Engagement Campaign was halted last year partly because the industry could not agree funding. We now have a new opportunity, caused by the reduction in state provision, to further raise the profile of protection, which should be embraced. It is an opportunity we should pursue via all avenues available and something that everyone, from providers to distributors, can play a part in. We need to grow the market and we have simple and easy to access communications tools to help us. The ball is in our court.
Matt Morris
LifeSearch Senior Policy Adviser
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Posted by @
11:52 AM, November 11
I think it is important for financial services providers and distributors to embrace social media to improve education and awareness about the industry. The 'inner workings' of insurance companies I suspect are regarded as something of a mystery by many consumers and social media gives the opportunity to show a more human side to organisations. It's about being open and transparent. Protection should have nothing to hide and we need to show that the industry is a force for good, supporting people in the most difficult circumstances.
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The CFEB business plan published yesterday makes it clear that now is the time to seek to influence the decision makers there to include protection in their advice process. One must put aside all issues with the usage of the word advice. That battle is as lost as a lost thing and wise soldiers accept defeats and regroup to try a more promising line of advance. Those of us who are keen to get the people protecting themselves and their families properly need to engage with the £33 million (admittedly just down from £45 million) budget the CFEB gets form us – the FS industry - to try to get some of it spent on promoting that area that every financial adviser I have ever met (but no Treasury minister yet) says is the cornerstone of a sound financial plan. Let’s hope we can persuade them to agree and that the £33m makes an impact where it matters – THE CONSUMER!
Tom Baigrie
LifeSearch
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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) will no longer be able to say no to life-saving drugs, which could bring joy to sickness insurance customers.
The government has changed NICE's mission plan so that it will just produce guidelines for doctors, rather than pass judgement on the use of treatments. From now on, an individual's doctor will recommend whether the drugs should be provided instead.
Sickness insurance customers may feel a boost as they could now have more access to drugs which could mean that they don't need to claim as much money from their policy.
Pharmaceutical companies will also welcome the change, as it could mean that more of their treatments are bought by the NHS, although some patient groups worry that it will lead to some treatments being available in some areas but not others. 
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People undergoing chemotherapy may find that their own body protects the cancer cells, which could have implications for their critical illness cover.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found that the cells can find refuge in the lymphoma, an organ where immune cells mature, leading to them resisting the treatment.
Researchers found that a molecule called IL-6 allowed the cells to stay healthy and that treatment which involved an IL-6 blocker was much more effective than one which didn't.
Dr Michael Hemann, who led the study, notes that further development of this treatment could lead to "the most potent therapy", although he points out that at present "most chemotherapeutic regimes ultimately fail to cure patients".
It's for this reason that getting critical illness cover to help cope financially with the cancer is so important. 
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People may not need to claim on their sickness insurance as long thanks to a new set of scanners in Edinburgh.
The Clinical Research Imaging Centre (CRIC) is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian, and aims to provide better diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, without the need for invasive procedures.
The imaging equipment will be able to scan organs in under a second and in great detail, allowing doctors a greater insight into what the problem is.
NHS Lothian's David Newby remarks that "with the University of Edinburgh's world-leading clinical research, this will allow a major improvement in our ability to rapidly investigate and understand the most serious and distressing diseases in our patients."
It's hoped that quicker diagnoses and treatments will lead to people not needing to call on as much of their sickness insurance. 
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