Working with insurers to improve persistency
Insurers and distributors both lose when a policy lapses. Working together on the causes benefits both, and the customer most of all.
A shared interest
When a protection policy lapses early, the customer loses cover, the distributor loses commission through clawback and the insurer loses a policy it has paid to acquire and underwrite. Persistency is one of the clearest areas where the interests of distributors, insurers and customers line up.
What each side sees
Insurers see payment patterns, lapse notices, claims and policy changes. Distributors see the advice conversation, the customer's circumstances and, increasingly, post-sale responses. Neither has the full picture alone. Sharing relevant information, within data protection rules, gives both a better view of why policies lapse.
Useful information to share
From insurer to distributor: timely notice of failed collections and pending lapses, so the distributor can contact the customer in time. From distributor to insurer: recurring post-sale issues such as delayed documents, incorrect details or confusion about benefits, which may point to process improvements. Both sides benefit from persistency data broken down by product and channel.
Consumer Duty across the chain
The Consumer Duty applies across the distribution chain, and firms are expected to share information that helps each other deliver good outcomes. Insurers' product governance and fair value assessments depend on understanding how products perform for customers in each channel. Distributors' post-sale data is a valuable input.
Practical collaboration
Agree how and when failed-payment information will be shared, and how quickly. Review post-sale issue themes with insurers periodically. Share cohort persistency data and discuss the drivers. Work together on improving communications customers find confusing. Test changes, such as earlier failed-payment contact, and measure the effect.
Benefits and support services
Many insurers invest in support services that customers rarely use. Distributors are well placed to raise awareness of these, in their own brand, at relevant moments. Insurers can help by keeping distributors informed of current benefits and how customers access them. Higher awareness increases the value customers receive and supports retention.
Commercial conversations
Distributors that can demonstrate strong, improving persistency, supported by clear evidence of the actions they take after the sale, are in a stronger position in commercial discussions with insurers. Persistency data, issue resolution data and outcome monitoring all strengthen that conversation.
Starting the conversation
Pick one insurer with a meaningful share of your business. Share your cohort persistency for their products and the main post-sale issues you see. Ask what they see from their side. Agree one change to test together, such as faster failed-payment notification. Measure the result and build from there.
Data protection
Sharing information between distributors and insurers must comply with data protection law. Agree the purpose, the data to be shared, the legal basis and how it will be secured. Where possible, share aggregated or anonymised data for analysis, and customer-level data only where it is needed to support that customer, such as notice of a failed payment.
Measuring the partnership
Track the persistency of each insurer's business through the firm over time, alongside the actions agreed together. Review progress jointly every few months. A partnership that can show improving persistency and fewer post-sale issues for a particular insurer's customers is valuable to both sides.
Why distributors are well placed
Distributors usually hold the closer relationship with the customer. They advised them, they are the brand the customer recognises and they are often the first point of contact when something goes wrong. That makes distributors particularly effective at reaching customers at risk of lapse, provided they have timely information from the insurer.
Common obstacles
Failed-payment information that arrives too late to act on. Data shared in formats that are hard to match to the distributor's records. Different contacts at the insurer for each issue. No agreed way to measure progress. Each can be solved with a short conversation and a simple agreement on what will be shared, when and how. Starting with one insurer and one issue keeps it manageable.
What good looks like
A strong distributor and insurer relationship on persistency typically includes timely failed-payment notification, a regular review of lapse and post-sale issue data, agreed actions with owners and a shared view of progress. Both sides can then point to concrete evidence of how they are improving outcomes for the customers they serve together, which supports their Consumer Duty reporting as well as their commercial results.
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FCA: FG22/5, final guidance on the Consumer Duty
FCA Handbook: PROD, product intervention and governance
Adviser.ai figures are drawn from anonymised client data and are illustrative. Results vary by firm, product and implementation.
Last updated 27 October 2026