Supporting clients to stay healthy begins with financial advisers engaging with their own preventative health
Priya Chagan, TAL General Manager Health Services
Preventative health is a catalyst for overall wellbeing. There’s no question that early diagnosis can be extremely beneficial to overall long-term health and can help reduce the need for expensive treatments by detecting a health condition before it reaches an advanced stage.
Financial advisers play a crucial role in enabling the financial health of their clients, and they also have a role to play when it comes to enhancing their clients’ physical and mental health. As they support their clients in enhancing health and wellbeing, it’s equally important that advisers focus on their own health and understand how to optimally manage this.
Taking proactive steps to understand preventative health, while modelling positive behaviours for clients, will enable trusted advisers to have more informed conversations with their clients and encourage them to make the right decisions regarding their health.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Australians have delayed getting relevant health screening tests and are putting themselves at risk of health conditions going undetected. Research by FiftyFive5 (COVID-19 Consumer Impact Monitor)1 found that the outbreak of COVID-19 saw over a third (38%) of financial services consumers in Australia delay at least one preventative health test.
TAL’s new research2 further confirms that many Australians aren’t engaging with their health, with 68% of Australians saying they haven’t had a skin check in the past 12 months, and more than 1 in 3 (35%) admitting they have never had a skin check. As well as getting regular professional skin checks, it’s important that we are all self-checking our skin to identify any changes.
When it comes to financial advisers, being authentic in their communication around health to their clients will foster greater engagement and value-driving opportunities. This is only possible if advisers themselves focus on their own health and embrace prevention to achieve long-term wellbeing.
Through TAL’s broad health focus, we seek to empower advisers and their clients to take a proactive approach to their health and wellbeing. A key part of this is educating them on the value of preventative screening tests, which can detect and possibly prevent serious conditions, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
Two elements of this program are TAL Health Sense Plus and TAL SpotChecker, which have been developed to enhance the health and wellbeing of Australians. In fact, research3 shows that over 50% of all cancers could be avoided with a combination of a healthy lifestyle and regular screening.
TAL Health Sense Plus highlights the role that preventative screening tests can play in detecting serious disease, acting as an incentive for clients to proactively manage their health by rewarding them with lump sum discounts on their policy premiums.
Through TAL SpotChecker, we are seeking to actively reduce the impact of one of the country’s most common cancers, skin cancer, by encouraging and enabling Australians to embrace skin safety and have regular skin checks, as a reflection of our commitment to supporting the health of all Australians.
It is crucial for advisers to prioritise their own health, so they are well-equipped to lead meaningful conversations with their clients in relation to health in a way that demonstrates their commitment to those client relationships.
As an insurer that puts health at the core of its business, through TAL Health Sense Plus and TAL SpotChecker we are aiming to partner with advisers in not only encouraging them to embrace preventative health themselves, but also adding value for their clients through critical conversations and dedicated resources aimed at supporting them to maintain their overall good health – physical, mental and financial.
1 Fiftyfive COVID-19 Consumer Impact Monitor
2 The survey was conducted by PureProfile on behalf of TAL, in October 2020, with a nationally representative sample of 1,001 respondents in Australia aged 18-65+ years old