Andy Philo: What are the benefits of Multi-Benefit?

Insights Hub quizzes Vitality director of strategic partnerships Andy Philo about recent enhancements to our Multi-Benefit offering and how they will benefit advisers.

With multiple benefit offerings playing an increasingly prominent role for advisers in the protection market, we made some refinements to our Multi-Benefit proposition for new business in April.

It’s no surprise that menu plan uptake has risen in recent years¹, with intermediaries taking advantage of the opportunity to apply for multiple benefits through a single application and underwriting journey alongside other perks such as discounts for multiple products.

Following the simplification of our life insurance offering into One Plan and One Optimiser last September, the first stage of enhancements to our Multi-Benefit offering is designed to make life even easier and more attractive for advisers to write business with us. Insights Hub caught up with Andy Philo, director of strategic partnerships for Vitality, to find out how and why.

What does the Multi-Benefit proposition currently allow advisers to do?

As well as applying for multiple benefits at the same time through one application and underwriting journey, advisers will also save time because they only need to enter the member details once. Up to seven benefits in total can be added to one Multi-Benefit plan and each can contain multiple covers – for instance, Life Cover and Income Protection Cover. Each benefit can have a different premium structure and will have its own quote, policy number, direct debit details, plan documents, and start and end dates. All this can be accessed by advisers quoting for multiple benefits through a portal using their Multi-Benefit service or directly through Adviser Hub by selecting multiple quotes.

Why is the Vitality approach different to a typical menu plan?

Effectively, a menu plan and a Multi-benefit Plan allow an adviser to structure a client portfolio in the same way, however there are a couple of small differences such as the way quotes are communicated and documented. Our approach allows us to provide advisers with flexibility when structuring our unique range of protection products and offers a discount to advisers selecting Income Protection as part of a Multi-Benefit offering.

What enhancements have been made to the offering and why?

As of April this year, we’ve made some refinements to enhance our Multi-Benefit proposition for new business. The most significant change is that only one Vitality fee is included any Multi-Benefit quote. This is the first stage of enhancements to the Multi-Benefit proposition and we think the changes will make it simpler for advisers to write this business with us going forward.

Who will this benefit most?

We expect that protection specialists and mortgage advisers wanting to provide comprehensive protection solutions to their clients will especially appreciate our new simple approach to doing business. This will mean that more intermediaries in the market will be able to ensure their clients get access to our wide-ranging cover options as well as the additional value our many rewards and partners can bring.

Anything else advisers should be aware of?

Another thing to perhaps note is that the enhancements to Multi-Benefit and the one Vitality fee will particularly impact iPipeline users, because the returns these users receive for Multi-Benefit will now be displayed differently on the system. This creates less work for advisers when working out the ‘true’ premium for Multi-Benefit offerings, which means no awkward conversations with clients.

Find out how our Multi-Benefit offering can benefit you and your clients. 

Andy Philo
Vitality director of strategic partnerships


Source: 1. NMG UK Protection Programme 2019/2020