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Protection horror stories

ended 07. May 2026

A Newspage broker is currently battling a big insurer that has been dragging its feet for months on paying out on a policy that he says is an open and shut case. Though many insurers are great and make the whole payout process easy and quick, do you believe that isolated cases do a huge amount of damage to the industry, as they often find their way into the media? In short, do a small amount of insurance horror stories make it more difficult for you to promote the benefits of protection to clients and convince them to take it out? What % of your clients with protection have had seamless payouts and where have there been issues that you thought were unnecessary? Any thoughts surrounding people's perception of protection (try saying that after 10 Stellas), send them across.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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David Stirling
Independent Financial Adviser at Mint Wealth
Twenty years in this job and I still mean every word when I tell clients they need protection. Most insurers are good with claims handled quickly, no unnecessary drama. But last year a client of mine, 39 years old, suffered a stroke. His wife called me in tears, completely vulnerable, English not her first language, no idea where to turn. We submitted the claim immediately. Six months on, his family hasn't seen a penny. That is not a complex case. That is a failure.
These stories get around. Word spreads, and suddenly I'm sitting across from someone who needs cover and before I've said a word they're telling me they're not wasting money on something that won't pay out. Every mishandled case hands that argument to the sceptics on a plate.
The gap between how these products are sold and how some insurers behave at claim stage is becoming impossible to ignore. I'll keep recommending protection because my clients need it. But the industry needs to start behaving like it believes in it too.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
Sadly, dealing with claims is part of the deal when you advise people on their insurance needs. Those claims can range from the mundane, such as a broken finger, to the truly tragic. Over the years I have had to help clients with a variety of different claims, across a range of different insurers. The good news is that in most cases the insurer has acted swiftly and with great empathy for the client, the sad news is that the process is very rarely quick, but not due to the insurer. In all the cases where there has been a delay in paying a claim, and sometimes quite significant delays, the holdup has always been getting the required medical information from the doctors and consultants that dealt with the client. We have had many times where insurers and claimants have spent months chasing up GP's and hospitals for the information needed to complete a claim pay out.
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Rohit Parmar-Mistry
Founder at Pattrn Data
A handful of poor protection claims can do more reputational damage than a hundred smooth payouts can repair, because people remember the story where a family was left fighting when they were already under pressure.

The industry cannot just say these cases are isolated and move on. If an insurer drags its feet on an open and shut claim, brokers then have to sell trust against the evidence of a bad experience. That makes advice harder, even when the product is genuinely valuable.

The practical answer is not spin. It is clearer claims communication, faster escalation when something is obviously stuck, and better evidence for clients that most claims are paid without drama.

Protection only works if people believe the promise will hold when life gets messy. For this brief, the useful answer is evidence people can check, limits they understand, and a clear route to challenge a poor outcome.