Interview - Mark Jones

The first was an obscure one: “At the end of the year, we’ve got the tax changes coming through from Solvency II to I minus E accounting, which will increase the cost for term assurance and critical illness. We’ve got the gender neutrality coming in on the 21st December, and we’ve now got the inability to see each other’s prices that are around in the market after the OFT ruling.

Wild west equivalents

So depending on how you look at it, you could think that just means it’s going to be equivalent of the Wild West because we’ve massive structural changes to the market while we’re going to be blind to everyone’s pricing; huge risks on where your gender mix is going to be and profitability challenges.

“On the other side, you can accept that it’s going to happen and there’s got to be a level of excitement about that.

“We’ve got the opportunity to do things a little bit different. We’re being forced to think about things so change should be good. It’s a bit of a new world out there for us at the moment so why not embrace it? Let’s see what happens.”

Sensing he’s on a roll, he continues: “There’s a growing realisation that you can’t continually target the existing market and cut your rates and try and fight ever more amongst a smaller group and hope to grow a business that way.

“I think that must be a positive for the future. If we can start enfranchising more rather than the way regulation is disenfranchising so many in the last 30 years.”
Having found two, it was back to the struggle, and the last may not be good news for all distributors: “There’s a growing recognition that all distribution isn’t the same. All major providers now are looking to work with those distributors that add value and that can only be good for the industry as a whole as it does reduce the wastage for consumers because they’ll be targeted more and more by the most successful ones.

“That should become a bit more of a virtuous circle. So we’re getting cleverer at what we’re doing, not necessarily to fight each other but just to keep value.” 
Getting right into his stride, he concludes with a call to arms: “I think it’s down to the industry to decide whether we should be half full or half empty at the moment. I think it would be really easy for us to say it’s all depressing and nothing’s going forward.

“There is potential for it being really exciting and interesting times if we make it so; and absolute certainty of it not ‑if we choose to go back and sit in the dark and sort through our numbers.” Well said.