Ahead of steam

The protection industry is often accused of designing products that are over-complicated and difficult to understand but, if the fortunes of term assurance are anything to go by, simplicity is not necessarily key to a sale. Little could be easier to understand than a product that, in return for a monthly premium, pays out a lump sum if you die. But, according to figures from Swiss Re's Term & Health Watch 2006, sales of term assurance are on a downward spiral. Continuing a trend that started in 2004, sales of new individual term assurance contracts fell to 1,584,208 policies in 2005, 10.4%...