The Intermediary –- May 2026 - Flipbook - Page 6
From the editor. . .
here’s an old saying that doctors
make the worst patients, the truth
of which I can aest to, having
witnessed my dad be a nightmare
to a long string of medical
professionals. Well, it’s also
true that property journalists make the worst
advisees. From snarky calls to major national
estate agents early in the process to berate them
for the conditional selling I’d been presented with
(post-Panoramagate, I should add) to suggesting
mortgage products to my own broker, I have been
a nightmare. Gleefully so.
The conversation that usually follows consists
of my husband pointing out that he would never
have thought to ask those questions or probe
deeper to uncover poor practices, followed by
a 20-minute unsolicited rant from yours truly
about how that, right there, is the problem.
I shouldn’t need to have expertise in this to get
the best service, or to know when someone is
aempting to pull a fast one. Which is oen.
And yet every day I am reminded how big a
difference a bit of basic knowledge can make.
Onto our raison d’être this month: protection.
I received a cold call some weeks ago, from what
I can only describe as a terrified child having his
first human interaction.
Aer an introduction that consisted largely
of panicked silence and him asking how he
could help me, I managed to coax my way into
discovering that he was calling to speak to me
about protection.
T
www.theintermediary.co.uk
www.uk.linkedin.com/company/the-intermediary
It was his first day, and I was his first call. He
may, I suspect, have been crying.
There’s much, much more to this story. I will
do an enthusiastic dramatic reenactment for
anyone with a spare 10 minutes. But aer my
initial irritation, which morphed into gently
coaching him on how to put his best foot forward
with cold calling, and what protection was, I sent
him on his slightly sniffly way and thought “why
was I the one training that kid?”
If the people cold-calling you about protection
don’t even know what they’re selling you, what
hope do time-poor, cash-strapped consumers
have, when they are already staring down
the barrel of the most expensive and stressful
purchase of their lives.
Of course, this kid was an outlier. But the fact
remains that my broker had at no point flagged
that someone would be geing in touch, or even
mentioned the existence of protection.
Yes, receiving a call from the physical
embodiment of a panic aack didn’t help, but
ultimately, no maer how smooth he’d been, we
weren’t starting from the best place. And that’s
coming from someone already sold on the idea.
Within these pages you’ll find plenty of people
providing practical tips on the best way to have
effective, educational conversations about
financial resilience and protection products.
Suffice it to say, I’ll be sending a few pointed
copies out myself. ●
Jessica Bird
@IntermediaryUK
Contributors
The Team
www.facebook.com/IntermediaryUK
PROTECTION
FOCUS ISSUE
INTERVIEWS ⬛ Paymentshield
and L&G on how brokers can
navigate a changing landscape
OPINION ⬛ Zurich, LV=,
Vitality, Royal London, Ceta,
Safe&Secure, and more
The
Intermediary.
www.theintermediary.co.uk | Issue 40 | May 2026 | £6
Jessica Bird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Managing Editor
Jessica O’Connor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deputy Editor
Marvin Onumonu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reporter
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The Intermediary | May 2026
Aaron Shinwell | Adam Healy | Adam Tyler
Adele Forbes | Ahmed Bawa | Alex Taylor
Alex Upton | Ammer Mohammed | Andrew Gething
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Charissa Chang | Chris Blewitt | Chris Martin
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STACK THE DECK
Positioning protection to give consumers the advantage
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