1. It protects more than just you – the main purpose of life insurance is to offer your family and friends a financial payment to help cope with funeral costs and other expenses. This means that the policy benefits others, making it your last gift to loves one.

2. It can ease the grieving process – following on from the above, life insurance policies can help people to grieve by removing any financial worries they may have. Without these concerns they can focus on the process of grieving, making the situation easier to cope with.

3. It will keep your finances in order – having a life insurance policy means that your finances will be kept firmly in check. This means that things like your mortgage payments may be covered in the event of your death.

4. It’s one less thing for you to worry about – following on from the above, having a policy which can cover you future financial arrangements means that you don’t have to worry about what will happen when you are no longer around.

5. It protects your children’s future – for those with children or dependents, life insurance policies can ensure that they are financially protected, giving them the best chance at a positive future.

6. It could make you life more comfortable – none of us like to think about a time when we will no longer be here but these policies can make your life more comfortable by giving you the knowledge that financial situations will be taken care of when that time comes.

7. It will help your spouse – whilst children and dependents will be protected with these policies it is important to remember the same benefit will be offered to your spouse as well. Any individual who has lost their partner will know there is a lot to organise immediately after a death and this can be hard to do when grieving. This payment could therefore remove one burden from your grieving partner, helping to protect them financially.

8. It can help pay debts – unfortunately, debts from credit cards and other such products are not cleared following your death and that means your family will be left to foot the bill. A life insurance payment could therefore be used to pay this off, meaning your family are not left out of pocket.

9. It is affordable – life insurance policies are actually fairly reasonable in price and that means that all individuals should invest in them. Of course, no-one can put a value on your life but investing in life insurance will mean that you will have peace of mind over what the future will bring.

10. It can improve your quality of life – some policies will offer early payouts to individuals who are suffering from a terminal illness, such as cancer. This means that you could benefit from an improved quality of life when you most need it, allowing you to make the most of your final moments.

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The agency recommends that there are three key steps that companies need to take in order for consumers to have restored confidence in financial services and brands.

1.    Develop brand values which truly reflect the business – which the agency describes as ‘talk the walk’ – which refers to having having a sound business model that is reflected in its brand values

2.    Differentiate from similar businesses

3.    Maximise the personal touch – become a people-friendly business

Ian Brownhill, Knowledge Director of BergHind Joseph says, “Trust took a massive hit following the credit crunch and ensuing recession, but issues such as high pay, mis-selling, conflicts of interest and short-termism have a much longer history.   We have asked if lack of trust in financial services companies is so widespread and deep-seated, is there anything individual brands can do about it?  The continuing financial crisis has dragged what was seen as a boring sector into the spotlight and now most people can be counted on to have an opinion about banks and insurance companies – sometimes even hedge funds and private equity firms.  What’s more increasingly, their views are negative.”

Examples of where business is being harmed include the low uptake of private pensions in the UK.  Mis-selling scandals, lack of transparency over charges, the collapse of company pension schemes and the failure of the once market-leading pension provider Equitable Life have all contributed to the lack of trust. This is also impacting on long-term savings products because consumers have low confidence in future performance and the future solvency of the company they have entrusted their savings. But even short-term products such as bank accounts are also seen as risky.

But BergHind Joseph has identified three steps to restore trust in individual financial sector brands:

1. Don’t walk the talk – talk the walk

Transparency is a necessity.  Easy access to the internet and social media mean that currents of information flow more freely than ever before, bypassing the former corporate gatekeepers – the internal heads of brand, marketing and communication.  Customers can broadcast their experiences in online forums.  Employees can blog to the outside world.  Financial services brands need to ‘talk the walk’. Invented brand values and superficial image-building will fool no-one.  Customers and stakeholders want proof, including product performance in line with promises, high standards of service, and exemplary behaviour at the corporate level.  And more authentic brand values will win the trust of employees as well as customers, helping to eliminate the cynicism that can kill internal brand allegiance.

2. Show them you’re really different

The financial services industry will remain contaminated by the financial crisis for the foreseeable future.  Consumers will apply a ‘mistrust discount’ to all financial services branding, marketing and communication claims.  It will be up to organisations to prove – through their attitudes, behaviour and performance – that they are not ‘just like all the rest’. As far as individual financial services brands are concerned, it’s all about differentiation – now more than ever.

3. Get up close and personal

People overweight personal experience in comparison with external sources of information.  Financial services brands need to build trust by making use of this psychological trait.  To the greatest extent possible, they must seek personal contact with customers and provide them with the expected and promised level of service.  And whenever that vital contact is mediated – for example by the telephone – the experience must be as human, attentive and helpful as it can be.

Brands must also discriminate – in the positive sense – between customer groups, making allowances for national, cultural and personal preferences. There is no such thing as ‘the’ customer, and all distinct customer groups need special attention.

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In the past few weeks mortgage rates have been increasing as it is expected that if the Eurozone summit fails the rates will start increasing faster than ever. For people wanting to get into the property market it is also going to be much harder.

ING and Nationwide last week said that their mortgage rates will be increasing and several other mortgage lenders followed suit with announcements that their rates would be going up as well. The reason for the increase in mortgage rates is that people are fearing the Eurozone might collapse.

John Charcol is a financial information company and a mortgage expert, Ray Boulger, from the company has said, “Compared with the past, mortgage rates are still relatively cheap and the increases have not yet affected how many people are taking out mortgages. However, this could very quickly change next year as the crisis in the Eurozone becomes more serious. The politicians at the summit are very good at talking about taking action but when it comes down to it they do very little indeed.”

Loans that are being given for home purchases are actually at the highest rate in two years and the number of people being approved for mortgages is increasing. This is largely down to the fact that lending conditions have loosened and the amount needed for a deposit has dropped.

There has also been an increase in the number of mortgages because more people are buying homes to let them out. Many landlords are taking advantage of this and enjoying the increased support they are seeing from lenders.

David Hollingworth is a mortgage broker and he has said, “There does seem to be some amount of movement in the rates of mortgages but I think it’ll be quite some time before we see any significant increases. People still find the fixed-rate mortgage very appealing because it means they don’t have to deal with a budget that fluctuates each month. Also, because of the low rates right now they are popular.”

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To be eligible  for the deal customers must be Nectar card holders and the card number must be supplied in the loan application, which is payable directly by bank transfer.

The head of loans at Sainsburys finance is Steven Baillie, and he says that they are pleased to be able their customers such a competitive rate and customers need to be quick to take advantage of this leading market rate.

Customers who have a loan from Sainsbury’s Finance will also benefit from a tailored repayment period of from one to five years, as well as having fixed repayments for the whole duration of the loan. In 1997 Sainsbury’s were the first of the major British supermarkets to open a bank, and currently offer a range of products that include credit cards, insurance, loans and savings.

The company also recently won awards at the ‘Your Money Awards’ 2011 for being the Best Online Personal Loan Provider and the Best Overall Online Provider. Sainsbury’s have also recently launched their new Nectar Credit Card which has a rate of 6.9% APR.

The new card was announced last month and is only available to Nectar card holders.

There is a no fee balance transfer and, according to the company, is the lowest rate available on any card currently on the market.

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The research showed that people tend to be in the most debt between the ages of 35 and 45 but also showed that around one million people aged between 18 and 40 are already struggling with mounting debts and financial difficulties. The data also shows that around 75% of people under 40 have debts which are not secured.

The name of the report is ‘Debt and the Generations’ and it highlights how young people will be left with a great deal of mortgage debt because the price of a home is now much higher as a multiple of gross income than it was in the past. If this is not giving people more debt that is only because they cannot afford to buy a house at all. Student debt is another reason people are struggling to save, and the cost of this debt is constantly a problem.

The report says the younger generations have very little protection if they lose a portion of their income. Of those under 40 the survey found that over 30% of them gathered no savings every month – the cost of living with all of the money that they had. At the other end of the spectrum all the people were found to have more extreme debts that younger people. Around 7% of people aged older than 55 had debts of over £150,000.

The chairman of the CCCS is Wilf Stevenson and he said, “This is a very worrying future for a younger generation. They have fewer assets and higher debts and this is not a good financial position to be in and will likely mean that they have a lower quality-of-life when they are older. Consumers in debt should know that they can turn to debt charities such as CCCS where they can get free support and advice on how to manage financial difficulties.”

Debts can easily get out of control and many people are finding that their debts are increasing even when they are making repayments. Chris and Rebecca Canham experienced this first hand; they took out a loan of £4000 and could afford the payments. However when Rebecca fell ill she could no longer work and they found they were unable to pay the monthly repayment. They tried to claim on a payment protection insurance policy but when this was rejected they found their debts increased to over three times the original amount they borrowed.

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In this programme, you buy a portion—a share—of a home and then pay rent to the association which owns the rest of the home. The share can be anywhere from 25 per cent to 75 per cent of the home. You can buy the rest of it (in stages if you wish) when you can afford to do so.

Of course, you would be buying the rest of the house at the going market rate. The advantage to this in a market with falling housing prices is that you would pay less for the remaining portion of the house.

The shared-ownership programme that is backed by the government is called HomeBuy. You would qualify if everyone in your household collectively earns less than £60,000 a year and cannot afford to purchase a home in your area.

The programme is available to first-time buyers or those who rent from a housing association or the council. It is also available to certain workers, but the qualifications differ in different parts of the country. You might qualify even if you owned a home before, as long as your household cannot afford to buy one now.

One advantage of the HomeBuy programme is that you can get a mortgage loan for up to 30 per cent of the value of the property for a low interest rate. You would pay no fees for five years. However, if you should sell the house, you would have to repay the housing association a percentage of the sale price equal to the percentage of the loan.

That is, if you took out a loan for 30 per cent of the value of the property (say £60,000 on property worth £200,000) and then sold the property for double the price, you would still pay 30 per cent of the sale price (£120,000 on a sale price of £400,000).

If you cannot afford to buy even 25 percent of a house, the Rent to HomeBuy progamme may be the way to go. You would rent a house which you wish to eventually purchase from an association for five years (or less) at 80 per cent of the normal rent. You promise to save the other 20 per cent and put it towards the cost of purchasing the home in the HomeBuy programme.

If the home cost £200,000, you would have to save a minimum of £50,000 during those five years. With that money, you would purchase 25 per cent or more of the home and enter the HomeBuy programme.

If you have rented a council home in England or Wales for at least five years, you may be able to buy your home. You will get a discount on the price that is calculated according to how long you have been a tenant, whether your house is a home or a flat and where you live. The discount makes it easier to obtain a mortgage. However, if you sell the property within five years, you will have to pay back all or some of the discount.

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A recent study by Zurich has revealed that over half of all respondents had witnessed a rise in gross written profit (GWP) over the past year, with a solid 23% confirming double digit growth.  The study also detailed the safer ways to invest money and how quality high net worth (HNW) insurance now has a big part to play.

The number of people classed as high net worth individuals seriously dipped in 2008, according to the Zurich study but incremented steadily up to 448,000 by 2009.  The research suggested that the main reason for this incline was the clever way in which wealthy people started investing their money and protecting themselves with high net worth insurance.

Gold prices soared in 2008 from £200,000 to £800,000 – indirectly encouraging the wealthy to invest in gold antiques and jewellery, as an alternative to risking their cash in recession hit banks.  As a result, HNW insurance brokers received an increase in client numbers as these antiques were so valuable that it became absolutely necessary for owners to acquire adequate protection.

-          Equally, the study outlined how stamps, wine and vintage cars also increased in value and explained how some individuals may already own items that have suddenly become high in value – these people can also benefit from HNW insurance.

Zurich’s research showed that HNW insurers witnessed the 23% rise in GWP but also mentioned how just 3% of respondents reported losses – all of which in single digits.  There is no doubt that this investment activity from the rich has had a healthy effect on insurance brokers but only those who offer extensive HNW insurance in the first place.

HNW homeowners can cover their expensive contents with high value home insurance.  Operating through a qualified insurance broker to acquire such insurance is the best way to guarantee adequate cover as they have the resources to tailor policies specifically to individuals.

Likewise, these homeowners can cover their actual buildings (even if listed) through the same insurance.  Zurich discovered that the majority of high-value properties sustained or improved their value, with sales of homes in wealthier areas of London increasing by 57.5% from 2008 to 2010 – homes priced at £2m or more.

It all concludes that high net worth insurance is a growing market regardless of the economic crisis the world is experiencing.  Plus, savvy high net worth individuals who invest in and regularly revalue certain assets, can relax in the knowledge their money is secured in the form of a valuable tangible item and protected further by quality HNW insurance.

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Alan Rubenstein is the head of the PPF and he has said, “the PPF has come through the troubled times of the last few years quite well and have taken no major damage.” Figures published for the 09/10 year show that the Fund has a surplus of over £400 million. This is due to good investments as well as a reduction in the number of claims being made. It is expected that the latest figures for last year are expected to show that there are further improvements in the fund.

Mr Rubenstein went onto say, “We have seen a great many troubles across the whole economy in the past two years and these troubles have affected every industry, including that of pensions. Fortunately we have done relatively well and seemed to have weathered the storm that has been battering the country financially.”

Mr Rubenstein sounded a note of caution; however, warning the PPF’s strong funding position was not something that could be taken for granted.

He said, “In an ever changing world, we need to understand our risks and plan our future funding, so that we can give everyone – members, levy payers and government – confidence that we will be around to pay the vital compensation we provide, not just for next year, or even the next ten years, but as long as we are needed.

That is why the funding strategy that we published last year is so important. This strategy charts a course over the next 19 years, as the risks we face evolve, toward a future in which the PPF can expect to be self-sufficient. That will mean a future in which the levy ceases to be a significant source of income for the fund, with our success or failure increasingly depending on our ability to manage our investments and risks together.”

In the meantime, said Mr Rubenstein, the levy would continue to be an important component of PPF resources. It was right that the way it was raised should be consistent with the PPF’s approach to its funding strategy. However, the design of the levy also needed to be a better match with the expectations of stakeholders.

Mr Rubenstein added, “Our changes to the levy from 2012/13 aim to combine these two requirements and the responses that we received to our consultation on our proposals indicated we were on the right track. There was strong support for the broad thrust of our proposals, with stakeholders viewing them as a significant improvement on the current levy framework.

A key change from 2012/13 will be that we will aim to set the rules for the levy for a three year period, rather than changing the way the levy is calculated every year. A scheme’s levy will still vary depending on movements in its risk, which is appropriate, although we are also making changes to smooth the assessment of risks which should help make bills more stable and predictable. Together with the stronger emphasis on scheme funding in the new formula, we believe this gives schemes more control over the levers that influence their levy.”

The PPF raises some of its funding through the pension protection levy. The levy helps towards the compensation payable to members of schemes that transfer to the PPF. All UK defined benefit (final salary) pension schemes eligible for PPF compensation pay the pension protection levy.

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Head of Loans for Sainsbury’s, Steven Baillie has said, “We are always looking for ways to bring our customers a better deal. This loan will allow them to find the extra capital to do many things, such as bring existing debts under control or just purchase a new big ticket item. By offering them in store rewards as well it really is a better deal than customers will find elsewhere. The double rewards mean customers can really feel a difference, if you spend £50 a week in the store, you will see a reward of over £50 at the end of the year.”

The new loan from Sainsbury’s also comes with a great many other benefits. There will be no set up fee and the money will be transferred directly into your personal bank account. The repayment period is very flexible and can be for up to seven years. The decision on lending is instant and there are fixed repayments.

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