All the world's a stage for Kevin Carr. Not your typical protection expert, as Paul Robertson finds out
Though now with PruProtect, in his role as head of protection strategy at protection specialist LifeSearch Kevin Carr was almost ubiquitous, both commenting on the market and instigating campaigns, but anyone seeing his picture must have wondered at some point how he got there. The vast majority of men in the insurance industry conform to stereotype - that is after all why we have them. Well known for his hatred of ties, Carr however is visually a curious blend of expensive clothes and scruffiness - it is almost a talent.
In person, although well educated, very pleasant and hugely knowledgeable about protection markets, he still seems to be the sort of person you would find in another, less staid, line of work, he is after all in a band with a commercial album out. Yet it seems financial services is a bit of a family business.
"When I was at school I did some work experience, two weeks with Nationwide, and then the next year with NatWest. My father was an accountant and mother was with UBS in the city. It's maybe a family thing but I always saw financial services as a creditable career path, and potentially rewarding. I had no idea I'd end up in protection insurance though," explains Carr.
Carr initially joined LifeSearch as an IFA and protection adviser, growing into more senior roles as the company developed. Perhaps due to the amount of coverage he receives, COVER has occasionally heard people question his credentials, yet he was a highly successful adviser, managing a team and personally writing around 1500 policies in his time advising. However eventually his job mutated. He explains: "We had no trade presence, it was all about branding and lead generation in the consumer press - we realised early on that a public relations (PR) story and an advert were worth more than the sum of their parts in terms of people contacting the firm with business.
Main man
"About once a month a journalist would ring and whoever answered the phone would deal with it. I have never been on a PR course in my life but I was the only one who liked talking to the press, the others were uncomfortable with being on the record, in the main. There is a pressure and risk involved. They also saw it as a distraction from their core business.
"I, on the other hand, enjoyed it and it was something that Tom Baigrie, the managing director, wanted the company to do. Eventually the one call a month became several a week, so five years ago Tom took me to lunch and at that lunch I stopped being an adviser and manager and became the company PR."
A move from IFA to company PR is all well and good but certainly begs the question of how that translates into becoming director of protection development at PruProtect. It turns out that we in the markets have each only seen one facet of Carr's role. Being the public face of LifeSearch was around a third of the job, he was also on the strategic board of the firm, one of four people making all decisions for the company going forward.
"My job title was accurate," says Carr. "I was involved in marketing, sales, distribution and crucially a large part of my role was managing the relationship with every life office and reinsurer we dealt with. This is really what the providers know me for, while everyone else just sees the PR side. I was involved in what products were sold, how they were priced, what commission we received and what the service and underwriting agreements were. So I know all the underwriters, sales directors and chief executive at all the life offices."
This goes to explaining how Carr's role will pan out at Prudential. However he expects to see PR remaining a key part of his new job. Prudential has a press office in existence, which will not change, but PruProtect is aware that as a new company it has messages to project.
"There are various ways to communicate those messages, says Carr. "IFA road shows, advertising, and PR. We need to work better in the pages of the trade press, for example. I am still involved in marketing, sales, product design, pricing and distribution though. All aspects I ran as an IFA I will now be dealing with for PruProtect. It is a straight fence jump."
Fresh start
The Prudential Group has had several attempts at the protection market and, as Carr points out, only one company can have the biggest market share. "All life offices, ourselves included, have to improve and adapt as years pass. It takes time to get the right people in place. PruProtect effectively launched 12 months ago, a joint venture with Discovery, it is a completely different company to the Pru of five years ago. It is effectively a new business with new people. Companies launch, adapt and grow - we are in the second phase. We want to take the market to a place where the core focus is not on price alone."
Never afraid to voice an opinion, Carr is no fan of the trend towards falling premiums the market has seen in recent years. His view is that the price cut circle has been damaging for all parties, be they consumers, IFAs or providers. He claims we are starting to see signs of a move away from this.
"Price is always core but we are seeing the beginnings of a trend towards severity based contracts. Contracts that, for example, specify mastectomy cover as a problem that needs to be met but that does not warrant a full payout. Dr Marius Barnard is well known for saying he made a mistake in not linking critical illness payouts to the severity of the condition when he invented the product. When your car loses a wing mirror you don't get a new car. As we begin to survive these diseases we remain alive to suffer others, which in turn may merit full of partial payment, it is quite complex."
Faith in the product
Overall PruProtect is expecting protection sales to hold up. Carr is keen to point out that there are plenty sources of statistics and analysis suggesting that when other areas of financial services struggle that protection either holds up or does even better.
"I have seen a graph contrasting the FTSE with protection sales and it is in the inverse. As the FTSE falls historically protection rises. When times are hard consumers focus inward and go back to basics and look to protect what they have. After 9/11 and the tsunami LifeSearch was quiet for a couple of days while the shock was absorbed then in the following weeks we were incredibly busy. It is always that way after disasters. When bad things happen, either economically or otherwise people look to themselves."
Nobody could deny that the industry could always promote itself better. However the concept of the entire industry moving forward as one has always been a thread running through Carr's opinions. Proclaiming himself always happy to see advertising, from supermarkets like Tesco to providers like Axa, he is nevertheless impatient with the tendency for firms to only promote what gives them direct personal benefit.
The exasperation is obvious: "We still need to find the best way of promoting as an overall industry. We as firms can grow our market share within a shrinking market, which is fine, but it would surely be better to grow the entire market, as that way we all grow. We could all write more business, have more people insured and more claims paid. A win all round."
So again, why did he not stay in a campaigning intermediary firm? A firm with enough neutrality to perhaps persuade the market?
"There are three reasons I jumped," he explains. "The first is the people. I think PruProtect have one of the strongest teams in the industry. Stuart Johnson, who I have known for about nine years, came over to PruProtect having worked for Scottish Provident, Bright Grey and Legal & General. He is one of the best underwriters in the industry. Iain Clark has been in sales at L&G for 20 years, he is currently on gardening leave but will join as sales director later this year.
"These people are a key reason I decided to join PruProtect - both those people have won LifeSearch awards in the past. I had also met a lot of the existing team and was impressed.
"Secondly, I could not work for a company that did not put the consumer first. When you are a life office you have two customers, the end user and the adviser in the middle. PruProtect is supportive of both and is also supportive of the advice process. Third, I have personally bought the product."
So no chance of him chucking it all in to become a rock star then? His band Tommy Atkins have an album out which Carr is as keen to promote as COVER is loathe. "It would be a lovely decision to make but it is highly unlikely. We have a gig a month and would love the industry to come and see us, but it is only a hobby. We all have professional day jobs."
Ah well, the rock firmament's loss would seem to be protection's gain.
CV: Kevin Carr
2008 - to date Director of protection development, PruProtect
2000 - 2008 Head of protection strategy, LifeSearch
1997 - 2000 Senior account handler, Commercial Union
1993 - 1996 Senior mortgage adviser, Nationwide Building Society.
