Complete the protection puzzle by understanding where accident and illness products fit

When you talk about protection, you probably start with the big pieces. Life cover. Critical illness. Income protection. These are familiar, and you know how to build them into a plan.

But the Everyday Risk Report shows that, even with those in place, many of your clients are still exposed. Everyday accidents, short term illness and children’s injuries are putting pressure on household finances long before a traditional policy is likely to pay out.

It can help to frame the conversation as a protection puzzle. This gives you a simple way to show that no single product can cover every risk. Different pieces work together to build a more complete picture.

MetLife’s accident and illness products sit in that puzzle as a flexible, day one solution for everyday risks. It does not compete with core life or income protection. It complements them.

Seeing the protection gap differently

You may naturally think about the protection gap in terms of under insured death or serious illness. The Everyday Risk Report widens that lens. It shows how more accidents and sickness than ever are disrupting work, school and family life.

Key findings include:

• 148.9 million working days lost due to sickness or injury in 2024
• 17.56 million people admitted to hospital, a seven per cent rise year on year
• 26.3 million A&E attendances, up three point eight per cent
• Almost half of adults have broken a bone at some point

These are not rare, distant events. Falls, trips and bumps remain one of the most common causes of hospital admission, especially for children. In a real household, even a short stay in hospital or a broken bone can mean lost income, extra costs and real stress.

Traditional products are vital for long-term security. However, they often do not respond to these smaller, more frequent events. That is the gap in protection that accident and illness products are designed to fill.

The protection puzzle in practice

The protection puzzle framework brings three priorities together:

• The customer
• Consumer Duty
• Commercial growth

Putting your customer first means understanding how everyday risk actually shows up in their life. You know that life is messy. Children fall at school. Clients get injured on the way to work. A routine operation turns into a few unexpected nights in hospital.

Consumer Duty then asks you to design solutions that are suitable, understood and deliver good outcomes. Commercial growth follows when your client can see that your advice has made a practical difference to their day-to-day resilience.

In this context, the puzzle pieces might look like:

• Life cover to protect dependants on death
• Critical illness cover to support recovery from major conditions
• Income protection to replace a proportion of earnings for longer term absence
• Mortgage protection to help keep a roof over the family’s head
• Accident and illness products to provide cash when accidents, injuries and hospital stays disrupt life
• ChildShield to support parents when a child becomes ill or injured

Each piece has a clear role. For example, EverydayProtect MultiProtect aren't replacements for income protection or a large lump sum benefit. Instead, they offer simple, affordable cash payments that arrive quickly when everyday mishaps occur.

How accident and illness differentiates from other products

Accident and illness stands out in three main ways.

Focus on everyday events, not just life changing ones

Most protection products are built around low frequency, high impact events such as death, cancer or a heart attack. EverydayProtect and MultiProtect focus on higher frequency, lower severity events that still carry financial consequences.

Covered scenarios include broken bones, dislocations, ligament tears, hospital stays and accidental death. Optional benefits can extend this to children and to clients with active lifestyles.

The Everyday Risk Report highlights that broken bones are one of the most common reasons parents claim for their children. EverydayProtect and MultiProtect are designed with this reality in mind. Benefits are structured around events that your clients recognise from their own lives, which makes conversations feel more relevant and less abstract.

Day one protection with simple acceptance

EverydayProtect is non underwritten. Clients can usually be accepted without medical questions, which makes it particularly useful for:

• Self employed clients who may struggle to secure traditional cover
• Clients with existing health conditions who face loadings or exclusions
• Time poor clients who want quick, straightforward protection

Cover starts from day one, so your client has confidence that a new policy can respond to the very next accident or hospital stay. This contrasts with some traditional products that involve waiting periods, deferred periods or lengthy underwriting.

Real world conversations that land

The protection puzzle positioning can change the way you frame discussions.

Instead of starting with “what cover would your family need in the event of your death”, you can begin with everyday realities:

• “If you were off work for two weeks after an accident, what would that do to your income and bills?”
• “If your child broke a bone and you needed to take time off to care for them, how would you cover the extra costs?”
• “How would you feel if a short hospital stay meant dipping into savings or taking on debt?”

These questions connect directly to the risks highlighted in the Everyday Risk Report . They also create a natural path into a layered solution, where EverydayProtect and MultiProtect sit alongside more traditional products.

You can then introduce accident and illness cover as a practical tool that:

• Pays cash benefits for common accidents and hospital stays
• Supports parents through Child Cover and ChildShield
• Could provide peace of mind for active clients who accept a higher risk of injury

Because benefits are easy to explain, your client can quickly see how the product would work in their own circumstances.

Supporting Consumer Duty and business growth

The protection puzzle is more than a useful metaphor. It supports Consumer Duty and commercial outcomes in several ways.

1. It encourages more holistic fact finding. By using the Everyday Risk Report , you can identify clients who are most exposed, such as self-employed workers, young adults, single parents and those with active lifestyles.
2. Clients who are sceptical about traditional cover may be more open to a policy that pays out for events they can easily imagine.
3. The modular unit structure helps you present clear choices. Your client can see the trade-off between price and benefit. This supports informed decision making and reduces the risk of future complaints.
4. These products may help create new revenue opportunities for your business

Additionally, they can:

• Add value in review meetings where core protection is already in place
• Provide an entry point for younger or budget conscious clients
• Help you stand out from competitors who focus only on traditional products

Bringing the pieces together

No single product completes the protection puzzle. However, by combining life cover, critical illness, income protection, mortgage protection and accident and illness cover, you can help your client feel more confident in living their everyday life.

EverydayProtect and MultiProtect are differentiated through a focus on everyday events, day-one protection and modular design.

When you use it alongside insights from the Everyday Risk Report, you have a practical way to:

• Turn data into meaningful client conversations
• Address real world risks that your client recognises
• Deliver good outcomes in line with the Consumer Duty
• Create opportunities for business growth

For your client, that means fewer gaps in protection. For you, it means a clearer story, stronger relationships and a more resilient advice proposition.