Protection products are unlikely to be seen as expensive, even after Gender Directive price correction, and there is limited value in IFAs targeting women in the lead up to December 21, Aviva has pointed out.
Speaking to Cover, Louise Colley, head of protection sales and marketing at Aviva, said: "Our research shows two things, that the public generally overestimate the cost of protection insurance and that the decision making when it comes to financial matters is male dominated.
"We have seen the industry targeting females as the pricing changes due to the Gender Directive and other regulatory influences like Sovency II and I-E accounting approach, but our research show a bias towards the male in a family historically making the financial decisions and this is likely to remain the bias going forward.
"It is strange that the day to day spending and budgeting in a standard family, which make up around 85% of the country, is influenced by the female but when it comes to financial services the decision becomes heavily male orientated.
"So ideally this marketing should be aimed at the family as a whole."
She also noted that the perception of cost for protection products is generally very high and that the Treasury's estimate of a 15% average increase in protection prices for women is unlikely to be a limiting factor in individual sales.
As an example, Aviva research asked the public what they perceived life cover to cost. For a life policy costing around £13 a month the average estimate was circa £50, with some guessing as high as £100 per month.
"So what we are saying here is that the extra cost on these policies is not really a factor in the purchase decision, life cover in particular remains a bargain, and people will be surprised it is so cheap," said Colley.
Colley indicated that Aviva intended to release further information on its stance towards gender re-pricing towards the end of next week.
