How understanding the importance of preventative health can boost your client relationships
 TAL General Manager Health Services Dr Priya Chagan |
At TAL, we want Australians to live their best lives through good health. We seek to support you and your clients in this pursuit by looking at health holistically – including physical, mental, and financial health – and by recognising the important role preventative health plays for all. Providing tailored solutions around preventative health and embracing a more personalised and holistic approach to supporting changing client needs can help advisers build longer lasting and deeper relationships with clients. This can also have a positive impact on the financial advice industry, as engaged clients are more likely to understand and appreciate the value of the advice they receive and in turn advocate for the industry. |
Skin cancer: The state of our nation
At TAL, our expertise in managing risks to health has provided us with much evidence of the benefits of prevention and early detection in maintaining good health and managing illness. Research1 shows that a third of all cancer cases could be avoided through a combination of healthy lifestyle and regular screening.
For the past seven years, through our TAL SpotChecker program we have been encouraging Australians to understand the importance of skin safety, as part of TAL’s broader commitment to raising awareness of preventative health.
The program provides an opportunity for advisers to start new conversations with clients around the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and obtaining the relevant preventative health checks such as skin cancer examinations.
The prevalence of skin cancer in our country remains alarmingly high, with 2 in 3 Australians to be diagnosed with some form of skin cancer by the age of 702.
TAL’s research3 indicates there is opportunity for Australians to be more proactive with preventative health care. While the Cancer Council of Australia4 recommends adults check their own skin every three months, TAL’s research found the proportion of people who do so remains low: 16% in 2018; 10% in 2019; 13% in 2020; and 14% in 2021 and 2022.
And while 65% of people surveyed are concerned about developing skin cancer, 37% admit that they only go to the doctor when they are unwell or injured, reinforcing how crucial it is to educate more Australians about the importance of early detection and to raise awareness of the role of regular skin checks in detecting and preventing skin cancer.
The importance of prevention in living a healthy life should not be overlooked. There is a role for life insurers to embrace an even more personalised and holistic approach to creating greater awareness for advisers on the topic. This can only enhance the role of advisers in your clients’ lives and the advice relationship.
Powering better financial and lifestyle outcomes for your clients
As an adviser with personal relationships with your clients, you are well placed to be able to help raise awareness of skin safety and preventative health more broadly. Focusing on and supporting your clients with their preventative health will not only facilitate deeper and more meaningful relationships, it can also help your clients to optimise their health and reach their goals.
TAL has created a range of resources to assist advisers and their clients to better understand how to take action, and an easy step is to make clients aware of those resources and suggest they take their first step in engaging with enhanced skin safety practices.
1World Health Organization, Cancer Prevention, available at http://www.who.int/cancer/prevention/en/ and accessed in May 2015; Dart H, and Wolin KY, Colditz GA, “Commentary: eight ways to prevent cancer: a framework for effective prevention messages for the public”, Cancer Causes Control 2012;23(4):601-8; and Colditz GA, Wolin KY, and Gehlert S., “Applying what we know to accelerate cancer prevention”, Sci Transl Med 2012;4(127):127rv4; cited by Cancer Australia, ‘Lifestyle risk factors and the primary prevention of cancer’ (June 2015), p 6, Australian Government, available online at https://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/resources/position-statements/lifestyle-risk-factors-and-primary-prevention-cancer/recommendations and accessed on 16 January 2023.
2 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Skin Cancer in Australia, AIHW, Canberra, 2016, cited by the Cancer Council in ‘Understanding Skin Cancer – A guide for people with cancer, their families and friends’, December 2021, page 13, available online at https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/skin-cancer/ and accessed on 16 January 2023
3 The survey was conducted by Edentify Pty Ltd on behalf of TAL, in October 2022, with a nationally representative sample of 1,500 respondents in Australia aged 18-65+ years old.
4 Cancer Council of WA, ‘Is it skin cancer’, available online at http://www.myuv.com.au/skincancer/ and accessed on 16 January 2023