Life insurance research should be used to support recommendations, not to drive advice.

Now this is been scratching away at my brain for a while. With the many advice processes discussed, in conversations with advisers over the years, I still struggle with two fundamentals when it comes to risk management and life cover planning.

If you are an RFA and you intend to be a business owner that's more than just a salesperson into the future, you need to make your voice heard, Jon-Paul Hale says.

Regulation and compliance. It is the talk of the town at the moment. However, adviser Jon-Paul Hale explains why he is deeply concerned with the continued attitudes between advisers within the financial services industry,

Jon-Paul Hale defends overseas trips for life insurance advisers and comes up with a new way of doing them which would kill all the bad press around them.

Advisers are often being told to just stick to what they specialise in and refer everything else to other people. Jon-Paul Hale takes a different view and says a good life insurance adviser should be asking questions and doing more with their clients. 

Future qualifications for financial advisers is a hot topic at the moment, but they may well be meaningless unless other changes are made, Jon-Paul Hale says.

Good Returns' new insurance columnist, Jon-Paul Hale, kicks off by asking advisers as simple question: "Can you define what you do?" It may sound simple, but the answer could be difficult.