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Important information - Upcoming maintenance: The CII will be undertaking work on our IT systems throughout the entire weekend of 12-14 October, as part of our strategy to better support our members and customers. The work will mean that during this time there will be no access to the CII/PFS/SMP websites and learners will be unable to take exams, access RevisionMate, or make purchases on these days. We have spoken to all those who have booked to sit an exam on these days to advise them of what action they need to take. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Insightful leadership

The CII’s insightful leadership programmes aims to understand key social, economic and technological trends over the next decade, in order to identify how the public’s life experiences and expectations may change, and equip professionals with the information and understanding they need to adapt.

Our work aims not only to improve guidance and information for professionals, but to create change in the way the profession operates, to maintain and improve outcomes for consumers.

This work is focussed on three campaigns: insuring futures, trust in the modern world and diversity and talent.

Insuring Futures

The CII will be working on a new set of campaigns as part of the wider Insuring Futures initiative. The newest campaign will help the public to build financial, physical, and mental wellbeing throughout their lives. The campaign will focus on supporting an ageing population and aim to inform the profession on how to be accessible to older people and fully understand the needs and barriers for some of the most vulnerable. The main objectives of the campaign are to raise awareness of the unique role the financial services and insurance professions have in supporting people to prepare for care earlier and maintaining independence. This is the second part of the ‘Insuring Futures’ initiative and we hope to continue this work by creating impactful campaigns aimed at different underrepresented groups, ensuring that the profession is fully inclusive.

The ageing population campaign will partly follow a life cycle model and will be used to inform the public on what they can and should be doing in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s + to support later life independence and care. The first stage of the campaign will be focused on information gathering, establishing key stakeholder relationships and raising awareness of the benefits of financial resilience and early planning. The second stage will produce guidance for professionals, showing how an understanding of the lived experiences of people in retirement and later life can enhance the service they give to consumers. The final stage of the campaign will identify how government policy needs to change to make it easier for people to build and maintain independence through life, and to influence public policy where necessary.

Later Life: Starting the Conversation – A Practical Guide

“You’re not taught about this later life thing, and if you have to manage someone in later life, you don’t really know what you should be doing… it’s another life experience that will hit everybody, but you don’t feel like you’re prepared for it and you don’t really know what you should be doing – I don’t know what I should be doing now, for example.”

These comments are typical of how most of us think about our late 70s, 80s and beyond (a period of life that is sometimes referred to as later life). It can be one of the most fulfilling periods of our lives, but it can also be a time of new, and sometimes daunting, experiences. As a result, talking to people about preparing for later life can be difficult, even with the people who are closest to us.

This guide contains some ideas and approaches that people have found helpful when making basic plans about retirement and later life. The guide does not talk about investments or insurance, it is simply intended to get conversations started – with parents, children, employers and professionals.

Trust in the Modern World

As one of our core values, we have been working to improve trust in the profession. We are now extending this body of work to trust in the modern world. This work will highlight the challenges that professionals are facing in staying up to date with changes to user-technologies. Current challenges include the conversation around the ethics of Open Finance in the insurance profession, and exploring how AI is changing financial services. We are actively engaging insurance and financial professionals in the potential of new technologies to provide a competent and efficient service to clients. The CII will use its role as a sector leader to identify the moral dilemmas and moral responsibilities that the insurance sector must implement to reach professional standards.

This research will cover three core areas. The first will be to identify how new technologies are changing consumer expectations on the speed and quality of service available to them. This will also illustrate the skills professionals need to develop in a fast-changing world to maintain a reputation for competence. The second area will focus on how practitioners can make use of these technologies while maintaining their professional integrity. The third and final area covers the duty of care that the profession must recognize to ensure that every demographic, particularly vulnerable groups, receive the same level of tailored support and customer experience. For example, being aware of the implications of improved underwriting on access to insurance for higher-risk consumers.

Diversity and Talent

The CII understands that it is impossible to serve different groups without having the same level of diversity running through the insurance sector. We have produced a series of good practice guides for the sector. These include guides on measuring and addressing the gender and ethnicity pay gap, a joint report with the charity Mind on mental health and employment and a joint report with Scope on employment for disabled people. The CII has also been part of initiatives like The United Nations #HeForShe and Insurance United Against Dementia in order tackle some of wider challenges in making the sector more inclusive.

Our future research will include subjects such as neurodiversity and supporting those with lived experiences of disabilities.