They were also extensively quoting life and health together – although at the time health-only quotes outnumbered health plus life (and anything else included in a life risk package) by two to one.

Today the number of advisers that has never quoted health is very small. The volume of health plus life quotes is much higher –about double, even after accounting for the fact there are many, many, more advisers using the quote tool. That is probably a huge testament to the work AIA, Partners Life, and Sovereign (we are talk about when AIA and Sovereign were separate), have done over the years. It is also a testament to products that, for all intents and purposes, have no upper limits.

Although it remains true that looking at the market as a whole, the dominant way to buy health insurance probably remains (just) group purchases, followed by a health-only policy, when it comes to seeking financial advice, the dominant approach is to think of health insurance as part of a package. That doesn’t mean it is always the same provider, but it does tend to favour the integrated sellers, in this case, AIA and Partners Life. Specialist health insurers Accuro, Southern Cross, and Unimed, are quoted much less often. Of course, there are some special reasons for each of those – Accuro gets almost as many quotes as Southern Cross, which should cheer Accuro and give pause to Southern Cross. Unimed is not really after the adviser market anyway.

The name I haven’t yet mentioned is the exception to this neat division: nib is the most quoted specialist health insurer. That status, technically at least, has just changed. So, although they do not offer a packaged life and health product of their own, their packaging deal of a few years back with Fidelity Life, and their focus on the adviser market has clearly earned them a place in the thinking of advisers. All told, adviser quoting of health with life has never been higher.