“I didn’t even know they offered that…”
Gary Waters
I coach advisers and firms driven to protect more customers. Together we will skyrocket your protection business and your earnings. Let’s do this!
That’s what I hear every single week from advisers. And it’s usually about a provider they’ve never properly
I had a brilliant chat with Josh Padfield recently. He’s passionate about protection and full of the kind of insights advisers love. Here’s what stood out:
🧠 Who are Cirencester Friendly? They’re a mutual who only do income protection. That’s it. No life cover, no critical illness. Just IP. And they do it really well.
Their claims payout rate? ✔️ 95.8% for 2023 ✔️ Same again in 2024 And they’ve averaged around 95% over the past 15 years.
💡 Cool stuff you might not know: ✅ No loadings for smoking, occupation, or hobbies Yes, really. Smokers get standard rates. So do scaffolders, police officers, and amateur skydivers (as long as they’re not accident-prone). ✅ Cover for Type 1 diabetes Even with an exclusion, that’s rare. And the process is fast—decisions usually in 2 days. ✅ Mental health done properly They use common sense underwriting and allow exclusions to be reviewed and removed. Even better, if a mental health exclusion is added, they reduce the premium by 5%. ✅ Children’s Critical Illness benefit One of the only IP providers to offer this for free on every plan.
😬 One thing they’re not great at: 🧪 Drug use. They’re strict. 1 year off weed. 5 years off cocaine. 10 years off heroin. If your client’s history doesn’t fit that—this isn’t the provider for them.
Oh—and they’re not on UnderwriteMe. Which is a shame, because a lot of advisers miss what they offer. The search engines are a great tool but you can miss big opportunities to protect your customers if you don’t look beyond them.
We need to open our eyes to the friendlies. They’re not ‘just for quirky cases’—many are ahead of the big brands on underwriting, claims, and consistency.
This series is my way of shining a light on what’s out there. So you can protect more people. And do it better.
Would love to hear what other providers you think deserve more attention 👇
#IncomeProtection #AdviserEducation #ProtectionAdvice #CirencesterFriendly #TheProtectionAcademy #Joshpadfield #ProtectionGap
Distribution Director, Cirencester Friendly
5moThanks for sharing, Gary. We really appreciate the support.
Thanks for the shout out Gary!
Dead Good at Mortgages & Insurance 🏡💀 Straightforward face-to-face advice. If you prefer a brew to a bot, you’re in the right place. ☕
5moCirencester are an awesome provider. They absolutely clean up with my IP sales. They’re definitely going the right way to plugging the ‘gap’ when it comes to Protection. Also helps Josh Padfield being such a great guy too! 👊😉