How Providers Responded To The Pandemic

Independent financial advisers give an overview of how financial services providers responded to the altered reality of a country in lockdown.

- Craig Gradidge, Virath Juggai and Mehmood Sader

Financial planning practitioners are used to the situation where we need to help clients adjust course because of some unforeseen life event. If we run into challenges, this would typically come in the form of resistance from product providers. This is when the “terms and conditions” would come out. With Covid-19, though, it was different for both advisers and product providers alike. The sheer scale of requests for some sort of adjustment to plans was unlike anything we’ve witnessed or experienced before. However, it was made easier by the fact that most providers were abandoning established ways of doing business and looking to provide some relief to clients.

There were lessons to be learned for all.

Role of the adviser

As the adviser to our clients, it quickly became evident that what we were dealing with was an unusual and pervasive situation. We couldn’t just fall back on the usual response to clients that “they would lose cover or benefits if they stopped their premiums”. We needed to get deeply involved and work with both clients and product providers to help protect clients as much as possible and retain as many of their benefits as possible, especially given that we were dealing with a health crisis.