Russell Hutchinson looks at the times when an insurance adviser could consider charging clients fees rather taking commission.

I was astonished to hear from a supermarket purchasing guru I know that often supermarkets sell well-known brands at a loss, for a period, for a special offer, or with a coupon, or just so they can put it on a billboard for a month.

It’s always been fashionable to knock insurance, to say it’s too complicated, too hard to get, and too hard to understand. It also seems to have become cool to talk about getting rid of your insurance – as much a mark of financial success as getting rid of your home loan.

Commission paid for policies sold is the dominant remuneration paradigm for the industry at present. It will probably continue to be so for some time to come.

Special events increase in cover options are an underused tool – virtually every life company offers them, and yet there simply isn’t enough use being made of them.

Russell Hutchinson wonders what the ideal medical insurance product would look like, and whether we are close to having it.

Advisers selling life insurance aren't just sales people, they also have a job translating the policy documents into language clients can understand.

At the recent IFA conference I ran a workshop on the future of life risk business and one area of feedback was around client’s health.

Russell Hutchinson reckons it's a good idea for risk advisers to know some the health stats off-by-heart and use them when talking to clients. Here he offers some numbers to start with.

Russell Hutchison reckons there is a problem matching up the written advice advisers give clients and the policy documents issued by life companies.

Russell Hutchinson ponders who is a broker under the new adviser rules and what it means to be a broker rather than an adviser.

Russell Hutchinson surveys the market to see who is recruiting advisers - and makes some startling findings.

Russell Hutchinson argues advisers need to adopt a new "normal" for life insurance cover, rather than just selling the most expensive policy.

It is horses for courses, the saying goes. Conventional wisdom is that after spending many exhausting hours going through all the information required to apply for a home loan the consumer is exhausted, and wishes simply to leave the chamber of horrors that the plush interview-room has become. For many people any review of their financial affairs leaves them anxious, and they need a good meal and a drink to recover from it.

Most consumers don't really understand what a good insurance adviser does - so it doesn't matter what letters are placed after your name, what matters is how you explain to them what you do. This brings us back to an old industry adage: "they must know how much you care before they care how much you know".