Justin Taurog: 'Peace of mind alone will not close the protection gap'
Marking the launch of Vitality’s latest Life Claims and Shared Value Report 2025, VitalityLife CEO Justin Taurog explains why traditional protection products require a rethink and need to move forward
Being there for your clients at the moments that matter is, of course, the cornerstone of what we do as an industry.
I am immensely proud that VitalityLife paid a total of £142m claims in 2024. Our broadened suite now offers more comprehensive and flexible cover through Income Protection, Serious Illness Cover, Dementia FrailCare Cover, Life Cover, Whole of Life, and - more recently - Accident and Fracture Cover.
As an industry, we must acknowledge however that the world is changing – indeed has changed – and we need to move with it.
There's more to life
Traditionally, protection has focused on offering people peace of mind. In exchange for a monthly premium today, clients can be safe in the knowledge that if something happens tomorrow, they’ll be covered.
But why should the moments that matter only mean serious illness, injury or death? Protecting people from falling into financial hardship when things go wrong is always vital, but it’s clear from the protection gap in the UK that many clients remain unconvinced by insurance for something they often think is never going to happen to them.
It also goes without saying that most people – if given the choice – would rather not fall ill or die prematurely and claim at all. Given the health challenges we face as a country, from rising rates of preventable disease to the strain of an aging and sick population, it’s increasingly clear that we must prioritise prevention as much as protection.
Rapid advances in technology, the advance of A.I and changing consumer trends also tell us that if we don’t move forward as a market, we run the risk of getting left behind. Especially as psychological biases prevent customers - who value upfront reward and immediate gratification - from protecting themselves from an event that they hope will never happen. At a time when more than ever is expected from a financial services product provider.
Shared value, not just added value
We hear a lot about ‘added-value’ in the protection industry, usually referring to bolt-on freebies that are often poorly communicated to clients and can be of questionable value. Meanwhile, the concept of value more broadly has been in the headlines in recent years with the introduction of Consumer Duty.
But what do we really mean by value? At Vitality, our unique Shared Value model has always been about delivering something tangible to your clients, that benefits them, us and wider society, and is underpinned by our core purpose of making people healthier and enhancing and protecting their lives.
At scale, the Vitality Shared Value model now covers 1.7 million lives in total and, in 2024, almost £100, worth of value was delivered to Vitality members through the Vitality Programme – long before they needed to make a claim[1].
Over the course of year, these rewards and incentives add up to more than a million cinema tickets received, almost three million hand-crafted beverages consumed from Caffe Nero and cashback from around 1.5 million healthy food shops at Waitrose, plus much more1. All integrated into lifestyles and enjoyed by our members each and every day.
Furthermore, this encouraged Vitality members to take steps to get healthier too: through health reviews, gym visits, tracked physical activity, such as walks, runs and workouts. They saved £40m on their premium through Optimiser, whilst being more active and less likely to cancel their plan on average[1].
And the icing on the cake: those who engage in the Vitality Programme live up to five years longer, our data has revealed. Ultimately, life insurance can be for living.
Moving Insurance forward
With both Consumer Duty and the FCA Pure Protection Study putting real value in the spotlight and calling upon insurers and advisers to better meet the needs of clients – not just tomorrow, but today – the Vitality Life Claims and Shared Value 2025 report helps prove what we’ve been arguing since entering the market in 2007: that traditional life insurance requires a rethink and needs to move forward.
At a time when choice in the market is consolidating and stifling innovation elsewhere, our pioneering philosophy is no longer a new idea in the protection market. The Vitality Claims & Shared Value Report 2025 provides cast-iron evidence that our Shared Value Insurance model is working - not just to protect more people by offering market-leading products and higher levels of upfront, tangible value, but to prevent people from needing to claim at all. Surely this is the very definition of avoiding foreseeable harm?
Read the report
1. VitalityLife Claims & Shared Value Report 2025
Personal Protection from Vitality
As well as offering the highest levels of protection, we also make it easier for your client's to take an active role in maintaining their wellbeing. We help them to understand their health and reward them for healthy lifestyle choices, by keeping their premiums low and giving them access to a range of discounts and rewards.
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