Interview with Aviva's Louise Colley: Walking the Walk

Never say never

First off, she believes making assumptions are pointless. But added, you should “never say never” and if it did land there should be appropriate lobbying to ensure all arguments were understood.

She said: “My personal view, if commission were to be banned, is that the impact would be huge on the bed rock of protection. It would be a devastating result if a commission ban were to be imposed.”

Many have predicted a commission review would not see a ban, but rather a move to a more transparent, upfront disclosure of commission to clients.

Colley said: “Even if a review translated this way, would it really change anything? Any adviser that talks about the client’s need for protection and the importance of cover is priceless. It is more about clients sitting down with a good quality adviser than focusing on commission.”

Clear views

And on the topic of adviser business, Colley has some clear views on how protection business related to generalist IFAs compared to the specialist firms. She said the industry would always have a cross population of advisers; the ones that always responded to change and the ones who took longer to adapt.

She said: “The bulk of protection is sold by specialists. And these guys have shown absolute resilience. They find where the opportunity exists.”

Colley likened the ethic to that of the specialist mortgage brokers. She highlighted that when the mortgage market collapsed and took mortgage business with it, their resilience really showed through.

“They looked to other opportunities and started doing more protection. These guys are resilient and adapt and change their focus to make sure their business survives,” Colley said.

But she added there was still more room for holistic advisers to be doing more protection alongside other advice. According to Colley, it was a black and white picture in that every single client should be having a conversation with their adviser about protection, regardless of what other advice they are getting.

She said: “I presented recently to some generalist advisers and, I do not mean this in a derogatory way, but there is so much more opportunity to do more with protection. Why not give protection the attention it deserves when giving advice to clients on other financial matters?

“They are selling it but they could do a lot more. There are pockets where we see it happening but the growth opportunity is with those guys.”

Colley added there had been a lot of things to come out of the FSA’s MMR to cast a brighter light on advice opportunity.