Top distributors have called for greater cohesion in the protection industry at a PruProtect leadership summit, led by Alistair Darling.
Sixteen key distributor leaders in the protection industry were invited to the Leadership Summit on 21 January including; Openwork, Tenet, LifeSearch, London and Country, Cofunds, Nucleus, the Mortgage Advice Bureau and Origen Financial Services.
Alistair Darling MP, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, opened the event with a speech about his time in politics before opening up a forum discussion among attendees about developing existing processes in the protection industry.
Phil Jeynes, head of account development at PruProtect, said: "The whole point of the exercise was to get some of the industry leaders in a room in an open forum to discuss the future. The key thing was for it to be inspirational.
"The thing that kept coming up time and time again was that to grow the protection industry we needed a more cohesive approach, so for example, in terms of when we launch new products and services."
He added that it was the first time the event had been run and it was mainly an opportunity for the insurer to get feedback from the top distribution leaders.
Keith Richards, group distribution and development director at Tenet, said: "There is some evidence of cohesion already and in particular with claims processes and unisex pricing but the meeting highlighted the need for greater cohesion among insurers which would be to the benefit of everyone.
"However the need for more cohesion within retail financial services is certainly not limited to the protection provider sector and the leaders' forum provided a valuable vehicle for joined up thinking."
Peter Brodnicki, chief executive of Mortgage Advice Bureau, said the event was a rare opportunity to spend time around a table with other senior figures from the protection market.
"To have such unrestricted access to the top people within a major insurer, as well as hearing from a keynote speaker such as Alistair Darling, made it a worthwhile event and one I will be keen to attend in future," he said.
George Higginson, chief executive of adviser network Sesame Bankhall, was unable to attend the meeting due to bad weather conditions but was keen to attend any future summits.
A spokesperson for the network said: "Sesame is a big advocate of the protection industry working together and is keen to get involved in any initiatives such as this."
PruProtect said it planned to run the leadership summit as a bi-annual event, with a second summit due in the latter half of the year.
