Advising on protection policies and writing in trust should not be a disjointed process, a tax and legal consultancy has said.
According to Technical Connection, speaking at an Aegon business protection conference this morning, the vast majority of advisers (61%) only wrote one to five cases a year with IHT provision in place.
Tony Wickenden, managing director at Technical Connection, said: "Advisers see writing protection in trust as relatively difficult and sort of shy away from it. It is perceived as just another small part of it.
"There seems to be a lot of energy and work put into getting the protection in place but then it gets put aside to be written in trust later which will probably never happen. They are seen as two separate things."
He added the two elements should be as one when it came to writing protection business as a whole.
"Part of the answer is perhaps working with providers to pull it together more and perhaps simplify the paperwork that goes with it," Wickenden said.
Further Technical Connection figures showed 62% of consumers were worried about tax at the moment.
In a presentation to adviser delegates Wickenden said clients would see a lot of value in an acceptable tax efficient plan that was not avoidance.
"Clients do not want anything more subtle than tax-efficient protection for their family and loved ones. Writing protection in trust needs to be made front of mind," Wickenden added.
"There is no reason not to write in trust from an adviser or client point of view. And for this added value advisers can even charge an extra small fee."
Stuart Horton, sales development manager at Aegon, said in the event's opening address that increasing internet sales and direct to consumer channels would not help the low levels of protection being written in trust.
