Benefit reminders: keeping protection value visible
A policy that feels useful is a policy that stays. Many customers never hear about the benefits they are already paying for.
The value gap
For most of its life, a protection policy is invisible. The premium leaves the customer's account each month, but the customer may not think about the cover until they need it. When money is tight, an invisible cost is an easy one to cut. Reminding customers what their cover does, and what else it includes, closes that gap.
What policies often include
Many protection policies now come with support services that customers can use at any time, not only when claiming. These can include remote GP appointments, mental health and counselling support, second medical opinions, nurse support, physiotherapy, and help with bereavement or legal questions. The detail varies between insurers and products. Customers are often unaware they have them.
Why reminders work
A reminder of a benefit the customer can use today gives the policy immediate, practical value. It also reinforces the bigger purpose of the cover. A customer who has used a remote GP service, or knows they can, is more likely to see the premium as worthwhile and less likely to cancel.
Designing a good reminder
Keep it specific to the customer's policy and insurer. Explain one or two benefits clearly, with how to access them. Use the firm's own brand, so the customer recognises who it is from. Avoid generic messages that could apply to anyone. Include an easy way to ask a question or request a review. And send it at a sensible moment, such as a few months after the policy starts, around the policy anniversary or at a time of year when a particular benefit is relevant.
Frequency
Too many reminders become noise. A small number of relevant contacts each year usually works better than frequent generic messages. Monitor open and click rates, and the rate at which customers unsubscribe or ignore messages, to find the right balance for each group of customers.
Measuring the effect
Track engagement with each reminder, requests for more information or reviews, and use of benefits where insurers share the data. Compare cancellation rates for customers who received and engaged with reminders against those who did not. Cost per opportunity surfaced, such as a review request or a referral, is a useful headline measure. Across Adviser.ai's platform, benefit reminders have delivered opportunities at a low cost per customer.
Consumer Duty
Helping customers understand and use the benefits they are paying for supports both the consumer understanding and the price and value outcomes. It is a practical demonstration that the firm is helping customers get value from their product throughout its life, not only at the point of sale.
A note on accuracy
Benefits and access routes change, and they differ between insurers and products. Reminders should be based on current information for each customer's policy, checked regularly. A reminder that points a customer to a service they do not have, or an outdated phone number, does more harm than good.
Which benefits to highlight
Choose benefits that are relevant to the customer's situation and easy to use. A remote GP service is useful to almost everyone. Mental health support may resonate at particular times of year. Second medical opinion services are especially relevant to customers with critical illness cover. Matching the message to the product and the moment makes it far more likely the customer will read it and act.
Linking reminders to reviews
A benefit reminder is also a natural moment to ask whether anything has changed. A simple question at the end of the message, inviting the customer to let the firm know about a new home, a new child or a change in work, can surface review opportunities without a separate contact. Those customers arrive at the conversation having already said what has changed.
Getting started
Pick the two or three most useful benefits for each insurer on the panel, confirm how customers access them, and write a short, branded reminder for each. Send it to customers whose policies started three to six months ago. Measure opens, clicks, questions and review requests, then compare cancellation rates with a group that did not receive it. Expand to other moments, such as policy anniversaries, once the first reminder is working well.
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Adviser.ai figures are drawn from anonymised client data and are illustrative. Results vary by firm, product and implementation.
Last updated 27 October 2026