'In a rapidly changing world, we must continue moving forward'
Marking the new year and in the lead up to Vitality Launch 2025, we caught up with some of the senior leadership team for their expectations and predictions for the health and life industry over the year ahead
Greg Levine, Deputy CEO
As we move into 2025, I see huge opportunities for our industry, not just to grow the health and protection market, but to truly make a difference to the lives of our clients and wider society.
It’s clear we live in an age of change, with a multitude of economic, health and environmental challenges, while advancements around A.I, data and technology provide our industry a great deal of untapped potential.
Indeed, at Vitality, we’ve been close to the debates around many of these issues in recent years – from hosting the UN at our offices in support of their global Principles for Sustainable Insurance initiative in 2023 to providing valuable data and insights for last year’s Times Health Summit on health and social care. Just this month, we also launched our 10 Years of Britain’s Healthiest Workplace research exploring a decade of UK productivity data.
Against this backdrop, it is clear is that our industry has been given the opportunity to evolve. Not just so it can better meet the needs of clients in a rapidly changing world - through the products and services we offer, and the ways we engage, communicate and deliver value to consumers – but also to meet the ever-growing demands of market regulation today.
You’ll see our ongoing commitment to this demonstrated in our upcoming Vitality Launch 2025, which I believe will be a game-changer, for our members and for advisers. I couldn’t be more excited.
Justin Taurog, CEO - VitalityLife
For me, a continuing trend of 2025 in the protection industry is going to be providing ongoing value to your clients.
Consumers increasingly expect more from their plans than just payment at the point of claim. The idea of an insurer only being there when something goes wrong is outdated. We need to be doing more because modern customers want products they can use every day.
Importantly, this must be about more than just ‘added value’, but instead making a tangible difference to the lives of our clients, long before a claim is made. Particularly as the health of our nation continues to be a growing challenge, something recognised by several announcements from the government in recent months.
By having a strategy focused on delivering tangible, everyday value alongside prevention and supporting health and wellbeing, as well as ensuring your clients have the best quality protection possible, our role as an insurer can play a hugely positive role in society. This is evidenced by how we are helping our members live longer in better health – up to five years, in fact1 – a message you’ve hopefully heard loud and clear in our recent life ad campaign, and a theme we’ll be coming back to throughout the year and beyond.
Dr Katie Tryon, Commercial Director - VitalityHealth
In 2025, I see the lens of the healthcare world turning towards health improvement and prevention. The government is laser focused on improvements that could be made across the board and new innovations are making this ever more achievable.
At Vitality, from the very beginning, we’ve focused on engaging our members in improving their health and wellbeing through their insurance plan. We continue to innovate to help our members both get healthier and stay healthier in the long term through sustainable healthy habit formation.
This is true shared value in action – for members, insurers, employers and society as a whole – and I believe this will become ever more prominent within our industry and beyond.
Arun Thiyagarajan, CEO -VitalityHealth
Private Medical Insurance has gone through a period of rapid growth in recent years and I don’t see consumer demand slowing down in 2025. Indeed, we’ve seen a marked shift in attitudes towards PMI, particularly amongst younger age groups, that’s unlikely to be reversed.
We are of course also living through an age of rapid technological development. In particular, advances in AI and big data are enabling a greater move towards more personalised healthcare and the provision of tailored health and wellness plans for individuals.
Elsewhere, increased integration of tech such as wearable devices, telemedicine and AI powered health tools are helping to improve access and monitoring of an individual’s health.
Across all sectors of healthcare, both public and private, it’s clear we must continue to prioritise the shift from reactive to proactive healthcare, doubling down on the prevention of chronic conditions and addressing people’s lifestyle risk factors. This emphasis on prevention has always been in Vitality’s DNA and it’s positive to see a wider shift elsewhere, particularly from the government and other healthcare providers.
Justin Garbutt, Director of IFA Distribution
In 2025, I see tremendous growth in clients actively seeking financial planning advice. With the uncertain economic environment and the renewed focus of Consumer Duty, the need for advice has never been greater. My prediction is this will lead to growth in Income Protection Cover and other comprehensive forms of protection, alongside an increasing need for IHT planning.
At Vitality, we will continue to innovate to ensure that clients are motivated to become healthier with tangible wellness benefits. We have the largest distribution team in the UK market which positions us well to continue to educate advisers around the benefits of getting a wellness engaged client base, while ensuring that they receive the most comprehensive cover possible at a time they need it most.
Lara Fascione, Retention and Adviser Operations Director
As we begin a new year, encouraging client engagement in a well-designed wellness programme has become essential for retaining customers. This is particularly important in a challenging and rapidly changing economic environment, where demonstrating value to customers who may not have made claims, can be difficult and where they may be questioning the utility of having cover in place.
It’s clear that given that challenging backdrop, having the right cover will be as important as ever in 2025, but the cost pressures facing households aren’t going away any time soon.
By offering comprehensive health and wellness benefits that contribute to an improved lifespan, measures like the Vitality Programme can tap into people’s increased desire to look after their health, especially at the start of the year, whilst offering them something immediate and tangible.
This approach to client engagement and retention is likely to become all the most important in the coming years and offers clear benefits for members, us as an insurer and you as an adviser.
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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