It’s not the protection adviser that’s the problem. It’s what’s happening before the referral ever lands.

I see this all the time.

A mortgage firm sets up a structure where mortgage advisers refer their clients to a couple of in-house Protection specialists.

On paper, it sounds perfect. Mortgage team does what they do best. Protection team does what they do best. Everyone wins.

But in reality? It’s hit and miss at best. And more often than not… it's just a miss.

Here’s why.

When I’m brought in to coach firms like this, they usually want me to work with the Protection advisers - to help them convert more referrals. And of course, that’s a good idea.

But if we don’t coach the mortgage-only advisers on how to pass it forward properly, no matter how good your Protection team is, the whole thing falls apart.

Let me give you an analogy.

Imagine a football team.

Your Protection advisers are the strikers. I can coach them to score goals from every angle, with either foot, eyes closed—no problem.

But the mortgage advisers? They’re the midfield.

If the midfield doesn’t know how to pass a decent ball forward, what chance does the striker have? They might pass it backwards. Miss the ball completely. Or fall over it.

It doesn’t matter how good your striker is—if the ball never arrives, they won’t be scoring much.

So why does this happen?

There are two big reasons:

Mindset: If mortgage-only advisers wanted to sell protection, they probably would. After all, it makes them more money. But many avoid it because they’re afraid of being seen as too pushy—or they believe the customer might not like them for bringing it up.

Experience: Mortgage advisers usually do the job because they like helping customers buy their homes. Nobody sells a mortgage. A customer comes to you and asks for a mortgage. But when it comes to protection, they freeze, because this actually feels like selling.

And let’s not forget… If they make a half-hearted, awkward handover to an adviser the client’s never met or heard of, it’s a hard sell for that protection adviser from the start.

But when we coach both the midfield and the striker… When we show mortgage advisers how to confidently and ethically introduce protection from the first conversation…

That’s when the magic happens.

It becomes a seamless two-adviser process—not a last-minute referral to “the insurance guy.”

And most importantly: Customers get better outcomes.