The protection gap is not a surprise - treating it as one is

At the Protection Distributors Group's (PDG) tenth anniversary, the Financial Conduct Authority's Ed Smith said the shock was not the protection gap. It was that so many people had never considered their needs. They were "not even at first base." There was, he said, "a real level of disengagement". He may be right, but what he is describing is a symptom, not a cause. Let's get real. A large protection gap is not new. It has outlived the Financial Services Authority, Retail Distribution Review (RDR), the Consumer Duty, several recessions, the smartphone, comparison sites, automated ...