{"id":59904,"date":"2026-05-04T17:29:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/59904\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T17:29:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:29:41","slug":"the-protection-gap-has-a-clear-gender-dimension-swiss-re","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/59904\/","title":{"rendered":"The protection gap has a clear gender dimension: Swiss Re"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking at the Women in Protection Conference 2026 this morning (30 April, 2026), Jennifer Gilchrist, protection industry affairs manager, Swiss Re, said that men hold nearly 20% more level-term assurance than women, with men writing more and holding higher levels of protection.<\/p>\n

This follows a difference in income and working patterns, with more part-time working among women leading to lower financial resilience, Gilchrist said: “Women are engaging with protection but outcomes are weaker, particularly in terms of adequacy and the level of cover.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Economic abuse highlights the “most acute end of the protection gap”, she added, so it is not just about affordability but about access and control over finances.<\/p>\n

“Some individuals cannot take out or manage cover independently, often relying on joint life policies,” Gilchrist said. “The patterns we see in the data, like lower cover levels and the rise of joint life, may not just reflect affordability but that reduced financial independence.”<\/p>\n

This means the protection gap is not just about what people have but whether they can access, own and benefit from it, she added.<\/p>\n

For group critical illness (CI), Ron Wheatcroft, technical manager, Swiss Re, said the main difference in the gender split is due to cover being able to include a spouse or partner, and the voluntary nature of cover.<\/p>\n

With growing regulatory focus, Gilchrist said there is a clear need to ensure safe, independent access to protection and stronger support for vulnerable customers.<\/p>\n

Overall, she noted seeing a push towards more scalable and more inclusive solutions in the industry, which is opening new growth opportunities.<\/p>\n

“When policy, regulation and customer demand align like this, it creates a real window of opportunity for the industry to evolve how we deliver protection, making it more relevant, accessible and impactful,” Gilchrist said.<\/p>\n

Data trends<\/p>\n

Looking at the trends identified in Swiss Re’s latest Group Watch report<\/a>, product choice and cover levels were found to be increasingly shaped by economic conditions.<\/p>\n

Across the industry, the report found a divergence with income protection (IP) coming to the fore, while CI is under more pressure and not being written as much.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, life cover through work has grown to 45% from 40% over the past 10-15 years, with occupational benefits representing 80% of insured cover.<\/p>\n

There was a “tougher market” for employers with the increase in national insurance contributions, rising minimum wage, etc. which Swiss Re anticipated to impact the numbers.<\/p>\n

“In a very difficult economic climate, the results are still pretty good and a lot of that is dealt with advisers,” Wheatcroft said.<\/p>\n

“If a member of a team wants to top up an IP benefit, the consequences of the tax rules currently applied are that both the contribution and the benefit are taxable, which we think, as many in the industry do, is wrong,” he added.<\/p>\n

Gilchrist said that customers are still engaging with protection but lower levels of cover are being selected, with the underinsurance gap being caused by affordability.<\/p>\n

“Where we’re seeing the impact into this year and next is where employers are maybe looking at sharing costs with the workforce,” Wheatcroft added. “We continue to see changes to the mix where more employers are looking to reduce the benefit duration.”<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the use of vocational rehabilitation (VR) and occupational support is something the industry is expected to see more of.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wheatcroft said VR is something the Government “hasn’t taken much notice of” but that there has been a big push to establish the case for this with Keep Britain Working.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Gilchrist said that providers are looking to develop more accessible and easier to understand propositions, this is aimed at widening access to protection and supporting more efficient distribution as well, particularly in a market shaped by the ongoing affordability pressures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking at the Women in Protection Conference 2026 this morning (30 April, 2026), Jennifer Gilchrist, protection industry affairs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[33220,7111,33221,33223,33224,33219,33218,33222,33226,7114,31074,41,9465,17,33225,33217,33216],"class_list":{"0":"post-59904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-economic-abuse","9":"tag-financial-resilience","10":"tag-financial-vulnerability","11":"tag-group-critical-illness","12":"tag-group-income-protection","13":"tag-group-watch-2026","14":"tag-jennifer-gilchrist","15":"tag-level-term-assurance","16":"tag-occupational-health","17":"tag-protection-gap","18":"tag-ron-wheatcroft","19":"tag-swiss","20":"tag-swiss-re","21":"tag-switzerland","22":"tag-vocational-rehabilitation","23":"tag-women-in-protection-conference","24":"tag-women-in-protection-network"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116517494097396630","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}