I believe that there will always be a demand for individuals and families to purchase PMI, so I can’t envisage a market dominated by either company or corporate plans.
We often receive enquiries from individuals who want to purchase PMI for themselves or their family for a variety of reasons. They may be setting up in business and they could possibly look at the handful of Insurers who offer one person company schemes, but we find that the “individual” cover options offer more flexibility in terms of their benefits and thus price.
Most insurers are constantly reviewing their individual product offerings to ensure that they do not lose market share in this sector. Over the last few years we have seen some insurers gradually lowering their minimum requirements of three employees to two or even one as the basis for setting up a company paid scheme. As a consequence, this has resulted in a demand for company paid schemes from clients who previously could have only purchased individual or family cover.
However, there are two areas where you will always have a need for individual products and these are group leavers and over age dependants. The ability of both of these clients to transfer into their own individual policy and to maintain their protected underwriting status will ensure a continued demand for individual cover in the future.