Zurich has urged advisers to be prepared for the impact of gender neutrality on their clients and business.
Although still a year away, the provider noted concern about how few intermediaries were even aware of the upheaval likely to hit the protection industry with the changes.
Phil Brown, head of protection and underwriting at Zurich UK Life, told COVER that many IFAs the provider had spoken to around the country knew little or nothing about the changes.
"I don't think the IFA industry is aware of the move to gender neutral pricing," Brown said.
"I would expect distribution to be a little more alert to the issue.
"Perhaps it's the providers fault and advisers have probably been distracted by the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) too," he added.
The changes being enforced, following the ruling by the European Court of Justice, are likely to result in significant changes in premium rates for both male and female customers across all protection product lines and many other sectors such as annuities.
Brown believes that advisers should be aware of this and the likely possible impacts for current or potential clients.
However, he warned that advisers should not take a blanket approach to the expected price rises or falls.
"I don't think any company should be going out there with a fill your boots exercise as it's a very non-TCF message," he said.
"And they might get caught in that if they are selling rates and know it's going to go the other way in one year's time," he added.
Brown also suspects there will be a period of instability around December 2012 when the rules are formally introduced and that underwriting will become focussed on other non-proxy factors.
"The fun will be when everyone goes to market with first run of gender neutral rates," he said.
"I think there will be a settling in approach and need to re-price rapidly.
"Are there other ways of refining your rate? We'll have to look harder at other factors," he added.
