"As the current industry discussion highlights, the challenge now is to embed guidance into practice"
Clive Mayne
Economic abuse is receiving growing attention across the insurance and protection industry - and rightly so.
The ABI has recently published new guidance developed with Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA), while a Health & Protection article has taken the discussion directly into the protection market – including whether joint protection policies should be capable of being separated where economic abuse is identified.
One comment particularly resonated with us:
“It makes absolute sense for those policies to be written as two single life policies rather than joint.”
It is a discussion that goes directly to the heart of CIExpert’s Single is Best campaign.
Single is Best began by challenging the assumption that joint protection should automatically be the default for couples. And our latest Critical Thinking research suggests that conversation is having an impact.
29% of advisers say the campaign has influenced how they recommend Critical Illness Cover.
The research also demonstrated the importance of better understanding. Among consumers expressing a view, 68% initially assumed joint cover provided better protection, despite only 12% saying they understood the difference. Once the practical differences were explained – including what happens following a first claim, separation or divorce – 51% chose two individual policies as providing better overall protection and value.
But Critical Thinking 2026 also uncovered another significant finding:
Just 3% of advisers were aware of related research into economic abuse linked to joint financial arrangements.
That feels particularly relevant now.
Individual policies can provide separate cover, greater flexibility and greater individual control when circumstances change. Economic abuse brings another important dimension to why those characteristics can matter.
Product innovation has a role to play, but so does adviser awareness. As the current industry discussion highlights, the challenge now is to embed guidance into practice, learn from the experiences of victim-survivors and give advisers the knowledge and confidence to respond appropriately.
For us, this feels like the natural next stage for Single is Best.
Working with Surviving Economic Abuse and others across the protection industry, we want to build on the progress already made and explore how greater awareness can translate into practical guidance for advisers.
