Speaking on a panel at the Cover Forum, Peter Le Beau (pictured), managing director of Le Beau Visage, summed up the state of the present market.

“We are really annoying people,” said Le Beau.

Joining Le Beau on the panel were Emma Thomson, life office relationship director of LifeSearch; Melissa Collett, senior ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, and John Ritchie chief executive officer of Ellipse.

Thomson told delegates that the customer wanted to buy insurance products but the process was proving off-putting.

Ritchie added that the industry was obsessed with finding the ‘marginally impaired’ and taking into account their conditions in the underwriting process which put them off.

Meanwhile Collett added that the underwriting process led to advisers ‘quoting back with higher premiums, and people don’t like that’.

The panel were asked which changes they’d most like to see in the industry. Both Le Beau and Thomson wished for a better engagement with government and visibility for issues within the industry.

Ritchie hoped for an increase in the use of research to understand consumers in the market better and improved communications between the industry and its audience.

Collett’s suggestion for the future was an end to question sets and disclosure forms to reduce the amount of disputes arising between providers and clients during the life of a policy.