The KPIs that matter in protection distribution
Most firms measure sales well and everything after the sale poorly. A balanced set of measures shows where value is created and where it is lost.
Why a balanced view matters
Protection distributors are often managed on new business volumes and commission. Those numbers matter, but on their own they can hide problems. A firm can grow sales while persistency falls, clawback rises and customer outcomes worsen. A balanced set of KPIs, covering the whole customer lifecycle, gives a truer picture of performance.
Acquisition and conversion
Cost per lead and cost per quote by source. Quote-to-application and application-to-on-risk conversion rates. Average premium and commission per policy. Time from enquiry to policy start. These show how efficiently the firm turns interest into business, and where in the sales process customers drop out.
Persistency and clawback
In-force rates at three, twelve, twenty-four and forty-eight months by monthly cohort. Clawback as a share of commission earned, measured by cohort rather than month of reclaim. Early lapse rate in the first three months. Each broken down by product, adviser, lead source and insurer. These are the measures that most directly link sales activity to revenue kept.
Post-sale engagement
Post-sale check completion rate. The proportion of responses raising an issue. Time to resolve issues. Failed-payment contact rate and recovery rate. Review invitations sent, reviews requested and completed. These show whether the firm is supporting customers after the sale, and provide early warning of future lapses.
Customer outcomes
Complaint rate and themes. Outcomes for customers with characteristics of vulnerability compared with others. The share of customers who confirm they understand their cover. Claims support provided. These link directly to the Consumer Duty outcomes and form the basis of board reporting.
Cost to serve
Cost per completed post-sale check, per issue surfaced, per review requested and per policy saved. Across Adviser.ai clients, measures like these have shown automated engagement delivering outcomes at up to 14 times lower cost than phone-based processes. Tracking cost per outcome, rather than cost per contact, shows the true efficiency of each process.
Using them together
The value comes from connecting the measures. A lead source with low cost per quote but poor twelve-month persistency may be less valuable than it looks. An adviser with high conversion but a high early lapse rate may need support with suitability. A rise in post-sale issues from one insurer may predict a rise in early cancellations. Reviewing the measures together, monthly, turns data into decisions.
Keeping it manageable
Start with a small set: new business, twelve-month persistency by cohort, clawback by cohort, post-sale completion and issue rate, complaint rate and cost per completed check. Add more as data quality improves. A handful of measures that everyone understands and acts on is far more useful than a large dashboard nobody reads.
Setting targets
Targets work best when they reflect the firm's own baseline and the levers it controls. Rather than setting an abstract persistency target, set targets for the activities that drive it, such as post-sale completion, time to resolve issues and failed-payment recovery, alongside an overall in-force target by cohort. Review progress monthly and adjust as the data improves.
Data quality
KPIs are only as good as the data behind them. Common problems include missing cancellation reasons, inconsistent lead source coding, commission statements that are hard to match to policies, and post-sale responses held outside the CRM. Fixing these is unglamorous but essential. A short data-quality review before introducing new KPIs saves a great deal of confusion later.
Reporting to the board
Board reporting under the Consumer Duty should focus on outcomes rather than activity. Pair commercial measures, such as persistency and clawback, with outcome measures, such as issues found and resolved, complaints and outcomes for vulnerable customers. Showing how the two move together makes a strong case that good customer outcomes and good commercial performance are linked.
Leading and lagging measures
Persistency and clawback are lagging measures: by the time they move, the cause happened months earlier. Post-sale completion, issue rate, time to resolve and failed-payment recovery are leading measures that predict them. Watching both lets a firm spot a problem, such as a jump in post-sale issues from one insurer or adviser, and act before it shows up in the clawback bill. A good KPI set always pairs each lagging outcome with the leading activities that drive it.
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FCA: FG22/5, final guidance on the Consumer Duty
Adviser.ai figures are drawn from anonymised client data and are illustrative. Results vary by firm, product and implementation.
Last updated 27 October 2026