Expert insight, analysis and commentary across the entire protection industry.
by ProtectionReview 20/05/15
Is consolidation good for consumers? This is a question that has been asked many times but always, it seems, big is better. Innocent Drinks, Ben & Jerry’s, Body Shop and Green & Black’s chocolate have all been taken into the larger corporate fold. Did the consumer benefit? Did the money behind these brands allow for innovation, wider distribution and better value for the consumer? In the last month approval has been given for Aviva’s merger with Friends’ Life, AXA PPP has announced the acquisition of Simplyhealth’s medical insurance business and Now Health has bought Best Doctors. Prior to this latest…
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by ProtectionReview 15/05/15
Last year I saw the best opening to a presentation that I have ever seen. Before the first PowerPoint slide was projected on to the screen, a senior director of a mobile telephone company stood up in front of the audience and held up his mobile phone. “Let me illustrate why meta data matters. This phone sends out a signal every minute or two saying where it is. Where the phone has been is where I have been. I have asked tech colleagues back at my office to condense 1 year in the life of this phone into 2 minutes.…
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by ProtectionReview 07/04/15
On Monday 6th April the Easter Bunny brought some good news to people aged over 55. The advent of the new pension freedoms means that, as an alternative to taking an annuity income from their Defined Contribution pension schemes, they can now also take their fund as cash, or simply leave it in the fund to pass on to their heirs. Around the theme of ‘Your Money-Your Choice’, to help people understand their pension options, the Government are providing a new free and impartial national advice service called ‘PensionWise’. The service will take potential retirees through a series of steps…
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by ProtectionReview 04/03/15
I have on the desk in front of me a book published in 1962: Anatomy of Britain by Anthony Sampson and an ABI publication from 2014: Identifying the Challenges of a Changing World. Most of this article focuses on the lessons that we might choose to learn from the ABI document, but it was a lucky accident that the Anthony Sampson book was next to it and that is where we start. Sampson was a senior journalist for the Observer. In his introduction he writes: “I first became interested in writing a book about the workings of Britain when I…
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by ProtectionReview 09/02/15
What is the main problem with living a long life? You may well ask what I mean by problem; after all who wants to die young, apart from Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend and I’m not sure they were entirely sincere. The modern world has bought us many benefits, one of which is greatly extended life, so why should that pose a problem? We are living very much longer than we have for most of our existence as a species, and not just in the developed Western societies. Globally the number of centenarians is projected to rise 10-fold in the…
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