New Year, New Opportunities: Three practical ways to unlock protection conversations in 2026

January is a rare moment in the adviser calendar. Plans reset, diaries are still malleable, and clients are thinking about change-not just numbers. Opening the year with confident, human conversations rather than product talk often sets the tone (and momentum) for the next twelve months. So how do we make those conversations count?

1) Start with the person, not the plan

Resolutions are rarely about money; they’re about identity-changing jobs, moving house, caring for family, or building a business. Those life changes are precisely where financial vulnerability hides. If you want to uncover protection needs, try a ten-minute ‘life event scan’ at the start of each review and let the client do most of the talking.

• Moments: What has changed (or could) in health, work, housing, family, or business?
• Moneyflows: What income is dependable vs. variable? Which costs are fixed vs. discretionary?
• Mindset: What would keep you up at night this quarter? What would you want safeguarded first?

This isn’t about reinventing the factfind; it’s merely a way to surface the reasons any protection conversation might exist-without naming products or solutions. When clients feel heard, they’re more open to exploring what matters most.

Almost 2 in 3 UK adults (62%) have no personal protection in place-including no Life Insurance, Income Protection or Critical Illness Cover,¹ and 4 in 5 adults couldn’t support themselves beyond 12 months if income stopped;² 22% don’t have enough savings to cope with a financial emergency³.

2) Make decisions smaller, not bigger

When clients hear ‘let’s review protection,’ they often picture a sprawling, complex exercise. That perception kills momentum. Instead we can focus on shorter, serial decisions and agree to revisit quickly.

• Prioritise one exposure-income continuity, debt servicing, business dependency, or caregiving risk.
• Agree a threshold (e.g., ‘What minimum income would you want to preserve for six months?’).
• Clarify trade-offs in plain language (‘What would you stop or delay if your income paused?’).
• Set a review date now. Short cycles keep momentum without overwhelming the client.

Clients rarely regret moving from zero to some cover-even if it’s an initial, modest step aligned to their current affordability and confidence. Progress beats perfection every time.

3) Use stories and scenarios to make risk real (and manageable)

Stories create clarity and help client’s to visualise their needs.

• The contractor with variable income: A three-month gap between contracts coincides with a partner’s maternity leave. The question isn’t ‘what’s the perfect solution?’ but ‘how would you keep essentials covered for a quarter?’
• The co-founder dependency: One director drives sales; the other runs operations. If either is out for a period, cashflow and customer confidence wobble. The practical discussion is about continuity, not products.

Stories should end with the next step the client chose-not with product pitch. This adds authenticity and makes the follow-up review feel natural rather than transactional.

Why it matters

• Less than 1 in 10 UK adults have Income Protection⁴
• 40% of critical illness claims were for adults under 50⁵
• Every 90 seconds someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer⁶
• Every five minutes someone in the UK is admitted to hospital following a heart attack⁷
• There are more than 100,000 strokes in the UK each year - at least one every five minutes⁷
• Every five minutes someone in the UK is admitted to hospital following a heart attack.⁷

If we know that 6 in 10 adults either know they’re underinsured or simply don’t know⁸, what’s stopping us from making protection the most natural part of every client conversation?

Sources:

¹²³⁴ Scottish Widows/YouGov research, 2025

⁵ Scottish Widows claims data, 2024

⁶ Cancer Research UK, Cancer in the UK Report, 2025

⁷ British Heart Foundation, 2024

⁸ Drewberry Protection Survey, 2025