The benefit clients forget they have

When did protection become something you only use in a crisis?  There’s a strange habit in our world. We talk about protection like it only exists for the worst day. The claim. The phone call nobody wants. The moment life changes shape. 

Yet many modern policies come with support that is there on ordinary days too. The days when someone’s worried about a symptom, struggling with stress, trying to care for a parent, or simply feeling overwhelmed. In other words, the days most clients actually live in. 

And still, it often goes untouched. 

It’s how advice works in real life. The case completes, the next case begins, and unless something forces the conversation back open, it stays shut. 

But it’s worth pausing on what that means. 

If the client forgets the support exists, who is it really for? 
 

The gap is not value. It’s memory. 

Clients don’t keep a running inventory of what’s bundled into a policy. They remember the big thing: “This pays out if…”. 

They don’t remember the second layer: “This helps before that point.” 

Even when support is included, it often goes untouched. Scottish Widows research found that over three quarters of people weren’t aware of the support services available with protection policies.¹ 

Support is available from day one, there’s no need to make a claim to use it, it can extend to the client’s immediate family, and it can still be used even if there is a pre-existing diagnosis. 

That’s a different way of thinking about what protection is. 

So the real question is: why do so many clients only discover this layer late, or not at all? 
 

Maybe it’s not “added value”. Maybe it’s the point. 

There’s a phrase we’ve all used: added value services. But it slightly gives the game away, doesn’t it?  It suggests the health and wellbeing support is a nice extra, like a freebie in the bag. Something you might use if you remember, but not something central to the decision. 

But if we reframe the support as GP appointments, nurse support, counselling, etc. That’s a different proposition entirely. 

It turns protection from a promise about the future into something practical in the present. It makes protection feel like part of someone’s life, not just a monthly direct debit. 
 

A link to lapses 

There’s another reality here, and it sits behind a lot of retention conversations. 

People don’t usually cancel a policy because they’ve done a detailed cost-benefit analysis. They cancel because it stops feeling relevant, or it gets crowded out by more immediate pressures. 

Reminders about health and wellbeing support can be linked to reducing cancellations, because clients can see a tangible benefit without having to claim.  If something is useful now, it feels easier to keep. 

If a client is paying for protection every month, is it enough that they might benefit one day, or do they need to feel it earning its keep along the way? 
 

Why clients don’t use what’s available (even when it would help) 

When people don’t use support, it’s tempting to assume they didn’t care. More often, it’s something else. 

Some clients forget it exists. Some assume it’ll be complicated. Some think it’s not really for them unless they’re seriously ill. Some don’t want to be a burden. 

What changes that isn’t a product explanation. It’s something much smaller: a sense that using the support is normal.  Claims stories matter, but they can still feel distant to clients, because people don’t like imagining themselves there.  Support stories are easier. They’re relatable. They don’t require a catastrophe. 

Reminding clients about their support services isn’t just extra admin, it’s how you keep their policy tangible and their trust in you strong, well before any claim. 

Maybe the better frame is this: keeping the policy connected to the client’s life. Because when the policy feels connected, the client doesn’t just remember the service. They remember the adviser who helped them access it, or who at least made it feel available. 
 

Keeping protection meaningful 

Protection has always been described as peace of mind. But peace of mind is not only about what happens on the worst day.  It’s also about what helps on the ordinary days when life is simply heavy. 

If support is genuinely available from day one, without a claim, and even when there’s a pre‑existing condition, what opportunity does that present for advisers to keep clients engaged long before life hits its hardest moment? 

Maybe the real opportunity for advisers isn’t to sell more features. 

Maybe it’s to make the support people already have feel visible, usable, and normal, long before they ever need to claim. 

Source: 

¹Scottish Widows & YouGov research, 2025