Analysis from Equifax Touchstone, a market leading intermediary database provider, shows protection product sales in Q3 2016 jumped 8.2% (£10.5 million) to £139.3 million. Year on year, overall protection sales have soared 25.9% (£28.6 million).

The data, which is collated from over 90 major product providers, with inputs from more than 11,000 advisers, reveals critical illness policies grew most during the quarter with a rise of 15.0% to £3.8 million. Decreasing term with critical illness and mortgage term followed closely behind, with increases of 12.8% (£1.0 million) and 11.7% (£2.5 million).  

Term assurance and term policies with critical illness were up 11.2% and 1.3% respectively, accounting for over half of total sales (57.1%) for the quarter. Relevant life policies were the only product to drop during Q3, falling by 7.4% (£0.2 million).

John Driscoll, Director at Equifax Touchstone, said: “Our quarterly analysis shows strong performance for protection product sales in the third quarter of this year, with growth across all areas except for relevant life policies. It’s promising to see critical illness policies continuing to drive the market forward, supported by the recovery of term assurance products following the fall in sales during Q2.

“With the summer period bucking the usual slowing mortgage sales, the market saw a significant increase in mortgage term volumes. We hope to see protection sales continue to increase during the final quarter of the 2016, setting the New Year up for a strong start.”  
Equifax Touchstone utilises intermediary and customer profiling tools to enable financial services providers obtain a detailed understanding of their marketplace and client base.