Signs of optimism for protection

The research shows 39% of advisers expect protection sales to improve over the coming quarter and a further 38% expect sales to remain the same. Confidence in protection sales is only marginally down since Q2, suggesting that protection could be a source of valuable income for the rest of the year. Only one in four advisers (24%) expect protection sales to drop over the next three months.

Overall sentiment is getting progressively more negative, according to the research. Adviser confidence has completely swung in the opposite direction to where it was in the first quarter of the year. Many more advisers are pessimistic about business prospects and this has got worse as the year has gone on. A third of advisers (33%) are predicting flat sales growth over the next quarter. This is broadly in line with the predictions made three months ago.

Stephen Smith, Legal & General’s Director of Housing said: “Mortgage advisers are clearly getting more pessimistic in general as the year goes on. However, there are some positives to be found in the protection market, which 39% of advisers expect to improve towards the end of 2008. A further 38% expect protection sales to stay flat, so it’s not all doom and gloom. Advisers are clearly seeing that there is a consumer need for protection and that there are income opportunities for them as intermediaries.”