Matthew Chapman: "Why I talk about rewards and benefits with clients"

As part of our Agents of Change series, we asked Matthew Chapman, protection adviser, to tell us how he gets value from talking about rewards and benefits with clients.

As we’ve explored so far in our Agents of Change video series, financial advisers are uniquely positioned to help their clients make positive lifestyle choices. By asking the right questions and recommending the most suitable products, intermediaries can seriously enrich and empower the lives of people. That’s why we - at Vitality - absolutely believe that advisers can be agents of change.

One of the ways this is made possible is by making clients aware of the rewards and benefits that are available within our plans. These are designed to incentivise healthy behaviour as well as deliver discounts and savings members. This is not only good for them – because they get better value and healthier as a result – financial advisers also benefit because they have more loyal and engaged client.

Still don’t believe us? We sat down with Matthew Chapman, Commercial Director and Senior Protection Adviser for Plus Protect, to hear about why he benefits from having these conversations. And how he goes about them.

So, Matthew, why is it so important to talk about the additional value of rewards and benefits with clients?

“As an adviser, I think there are a couple of really interesting things about Vitality, that curve the trend and makes it stand out. From an advice point of view, it helps me to deliver immediate value through something that actually has very little immediate value in the client’s eyes. Most people take out insurance assuming that they are never going to actually need to claim. We all probably suffer a little bit from ‘optimism bias’; we think it’s not going to happen to us. An insurance contract is often more of a box-ticking exercise for people. Sometimes it’s hard to provide value around that and convince the client of the need to take out the contract; so if you’ve got a product that is less – in the client’s eyes – of a ‘waste of money’, you’re offering a plan that delivers immediate, actual, tangible value to them. Whether this is in the form of rewards or incentives and benefits, or whether it’s helping the client achieve and maintain lifestyle goals – it makes my job as an adviser that much easier.”

What is the best way to ensure your client gets the most value out of their plan?

“I’ve been signposting to advisers the need to do annual reviews with clients for as long as I can remember. Normally, advisers who are selling protection alongside mortgages might not get in touch until it comes back around for the mortgage to be renewed. The nice thing about Vitality is that it offers the perfect example to check in with the client on a regular basis to see how they are engaging with the Vitality Programme. Are they getting maximum value out of it? Are they utilising those rewards, benefits and incentives? Are they making the most of the plan? And that might not be in a fiscal sense; it might be just making sure they Optimise what they do. Are they achieving the different Vitality statuses (Silver, Gold, Platinum)? Are they utilising the various health checks they are able to through the plan? It’s also about helping the client understand how those early interventions measures can benefit them – and how Vitality can act as a tool for their health and wellbeing as well.”

Watch the Agents of Change video series to find out how financial advisers are helping their clients make positive lifestyle choices.