Protection Guru is an independent protection information and education hub, designed for professional advisers. The hub provides advisers with free access to granular, detailed analysis on the protection products and services available in the market, that FTRC produce on a regularly basis.

Protection Guru focuses on product analysis and comparisons, policy condition changes, and policy upgrades, across the full range of protection contracts, including: life protection, mortgage protection, critical illness, income protection, business protection, and relevant life.

It also explores areas such as the different types of conditions that are more prevalent among adults and children at different ages. This data can then be used by advisers to determine the most appropriate protection cover and policy for their clients.

Protection Guru is not a news site but designed to complement the work of the industry trade press by providing advisers with a more granular level of detail on the latest product details technical information and key issues to consider than it is practical to produce within media sites

In just 18 months, Protection Guru (www.protectionguru.co.uk) has become the most respected and valued objective technical information service for advisers.​

Our ability to react and analyse quickly is highlighted by the comprehensive source of information we rapidly developed regarding COVID-19 and which is now achieving over 20,000 page impressions a month.

In the coming months we will be migrating our protection research and benchmarking services onto a new and improved website ProtectionGuruPro. This will be our new and updated benchmarking and comparison software to help advisers compare products based on a comprehensive analysis of features deemed important for their clients.

“Personally, as Cabinet Office Disability and Access Ambassador for the insurance industry and profession plus Access To Insurance Working Group Chair, I hugely value and welcome the highly innovative one stop information service, professional development and support plus improving client outcomes hub, backed by independent medical expertise, that Protection Guru has developed and made available to intermediaries. The proposition has something for all types of adviser and planner at each stage of the client lifetime journey, adding significant value to specialist and non-specialist intermediary firms alike – This supported with associated discussion groups that enables learning and best practice to be shared. The services provided by the hub individually and collectively greatly aid advisers enter and re-enter the protection market and as a result, it can and does aid improve access to appropriate insurance solutions.

I additionally applaud the team for their horizon scanning, strategic thinking and agile working when the Covid 19 pandemic hit for very quickly appreciating that reinsuer and provider underwriting philosophies and risk appetites would become very fluid plus provider business as usual ability to access medical evidence constrained  with this seeing Protection Gura as a consequence set up its “ all in one place” Covid underwriting microsite that kept and keeps advisory firms up to date with underwriting changes and developments in real time plus proactively updates intermediaries – As Access To Insurance Working Group Chair it’s important to me that the value of this initiative is fully appreciated as it has, and continues, to play a pivotable role in aiding advisers access the best underwriting terms and outcomes for their clients and we should be in no doubt, this service  played a significant role pre Covid19 vaccine roll out in keeping protection insurance accessible to the many. 

As one who played a part in the development of the Seven Families initiative and who for 25 years has sought to replicate in the UK the intermediary support provided to US brokers by www.lifehappens.org, I welcome the development of the Protection Guru claims hub which was designed to provide advisers with a single destination to obtain claims statistics, insurer claim processes and claims stories from across the industry to hopefully drive better client conversations and help overcome objections.”

Johnny Timpson, Cabinet Office Disability & Access Ambassador

“The COVID pandemic created immense confusion and uncertainty for advisers as insurance providers reacted and adjusted to a seemingly ever-changing risk. The COVID Hub develped by Protection Guru enabled me to deliver positive outcomes for my clients and was a source of clarity and comfort during an extremely challenging period. I would argue that the COVID Hub was equally valuable for providers, and the industry as a whole, as it redirected COVID-related underwriting queries away from the providers so they could focus more on service levels and adapting to the situation which helped to ensure that access to essential insurances remained a possibility for many.

Protection Guru is an invaluable resource. I consider it to be the industry’s most comprehensive source of data, insight, provider and product knowledge. It empowers advisers to deliver better outcomes and promote protection with confidence. I can say with certainty that I would be less effective as an adviser without Protection Guru.”

Matthew Chapman, Commercial Director – Plus Financial

“Protection Guru has made huge strides over the last 12 months.  They’ve always been a ‘go to’ resource for industry insight, but the work they’ve done in particular  to collate and share industry responses to the pandemic has been hugely helpful, timely and insightful. The new Claims hub reinforces why we’re all in business and should help advisers have even more meaningful conversations, and overall the regularity and depth of  reporting has turned the site into an essential resource.”

Peter Hamilton, Head of Market Engagement – Zurich

“Protection Guru provide an invaluable service to advisers with their regular insights, but where they really stood out for me was in their response to the pandemic through their COVID hub. Keeping up to date with insurer changes was becoming a full time job, so having all this data in one easy to access location was brilliant and allowed advisers to spend more time helping clients and less time asking insurers about their changes. We even linked to the hub from our internal network so advisers could access the data with ease.  And what’s more is that it was provided free of charge to advisers.”

Alan Knowles, Managing Director – Cura Financial Services

“The spring of 2020 was an extremely challenging time for individuals and businesses the world over.  Our industry was no different.  Providers were having to regularly respond to the pandemic by restricting  underwriting rules and change processes.  It was a hugely challenge for advisers and distributors to keep up with these daily changes in order to offer their customers the correct and appropriate advice.  Protection Guru quickly recognised this need and stepped up to the mark by collating the daily changes throughout the industry, formatting them in an easy to read fashion and then quickly publishing them.  Advisers, providers and indeed many in the industry found this single point of reference invaluable and helped to keep our market buoyant in the most challenging of times.”

Vicky Churcher, Intermediary Director – AIG Life

“There is no question over the quality and effectiveness of the information available through Protection Guru and like any other adviser I have spoken to, it has provided for me an extremely valuable source for information.”

Jim McLaughlin, Business Owner – Estate Planning 4 Advisers

“Definitely great source of information- I still see advisors talking about advising just on cost yet it is only half of the story and Protection Guru is great at providing much more detailed qualitative data to help you research the best solutions and to explain why they are you are recommending them.” 

Jane Hodges, Director – Money Honey Financial Planning

“Protection Guru is a fantastic, credible and valuable resource for advisers.  From all of us at Vita we appreciated your proposition.”

Barry Pappin, Co-Director – Vita Financial Ltd

“The COVID19 pandemic has brought waves of change in the insurance industry over the last 12 months, with everyone having to sail the seas of uncertainty in terms of underwriting outcomes due to understandable changes made by insurers. ProtectionGuru have certainly helped advisers understand the new stances of underwriters and the impact this has on client enquiries. Having regular email alerts and a central reference point was fantastic for our team, and we’re very thankful for their efforts in making this possible.”

Paul Reed, Director – Vita Financial Ltd

“Being new to this industry I have really enjoyed reading all the articles (well as much as I can get through as there is so much to take in and digest).  It’s brilliant to have a constant flow of information, it really helps me develop my knowledge and understanding of all the different elements.  Thanks so much for sharing it all with us.  Keep them coming please.”

Gill Hogg, Protection Specialist – Platinum Financial Limited

“Protection Guru, such a valuable source of information for us advisers, keep up the great work.”

Kieron Hogg, Personal & Business Protection Sales Manager – Platinum Financial Limited

“Protection Guru has fast become the most trusted resource amongst advisers in identifying the most suitable cover for clients by providing invaluable analysis to the market. It can be relied upon for comprehensive and timely content which is concise and easy to understand. Being able to download the ratings fact sheets will be a great benefit and help support our advice recommendations. Their use of independent medical professionals to identify which critical illness policies are really best for customers puts them head and shoulders above any other protection research service in the market.”  

“We commend the work of the Protection Guru.  We find this very useful resource and use its features and topics regularly in our staffs monthly CPD.  It is a regular contributor to our professional standards. 

What we love is those detail topics and comparisons of insurer products, like fracture cover and underwriting evidence.  The reality is that few brokers have the resources to do such research so having the Protection Guru do it is very helpful.”

Ian Sawyer, Commercial Director – Assured Futures

“Protection Guru has developed to complement Elvis, LifeSearch advisers’ e-learning platform, in a highly effective way, keeping us bang up to date and sharpening our focus too. An outstanding addition to our market.”

Tom Baigrie, Chief Executive Officer, Lifesearch plc

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