At our recent Xplan Unlocked roadshows around Australia, I had the pleasure of presenting Unlock Advice and demonstrating how Visualise can support conversations throughout the client journey.
One of the themes from the session was that projections aren’t promises. They are a view of what a client’s future could look like based on today’s situation, assumptions and choices. As circumstances change, the projection can change too. Markets move, interest rates change, work plans evolve and unexpected events happen.
That is why projections should not be treated as set and forget. Advisers may live in the numbers, but clients live in the results. They want to understand what those numbers could mean for their lifestyle, choices and financial security. Using projections at review meetings helps advisers confirm whether the client is still on track to meet their goals, explain what has changed and identify where a new conversation or adjustment may be needed.
We brought this idea to life with a strategy-card game. Teams selected strategies and what-if scenarios to build a comparative client situation, then used Visualise to show the impact those choices could have on future retirement wealth. The cards made the exercise interactive and practical, while Visualise made it possible to see the effect of each choice quickly and clearly.
After the session, someone asked me an interesting question:
"How could Visualise be used for risk-only advice?"
My first thought was to demonstrate the impact of paying insurance premiums from cashflow versus super, and how that could affect a client’s retirement wealth over time. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised there was another powerful opportunity:
Use Visualise to help clients see the impact of doing nothing.
Risk advice is about more than the policy
Risk Researcher remains an important tool for needs analysis, insurance research, quoting and comparisons. But once the recommended cover has been identified, the client conversation does not have to stop at the policy schedule or premium.
For many clients, the real question is not simply:
“What insurance should I take out?”
It is:
“What could happen to my family, my income and my plans if I do not take action?”
That is where Visualise can add another dimension to the conversation.
It can help advisers illustrate how a client’s cashflow, expenses, work plans and longer-term financial position could change under different circumstances. The value is not in predicting exactly what will happen. It is in helping the client understand the financial consequences of different choices.
Making the invisible visible
Insurance is designed for events that clients hope never happen. That can make it difficult for them to see the value of paying for protection today.
A client may understand that they need income protection, life insurance, TPD or trauma cover. But the premium is immediate, while the benefit is uncertain and may feel far away.
Visualise can help bring the conversation into focus by exploring scenarios such as:
- What if the client became unable to work for an extended period?
- What if their income stopped, but their mortgage, school fees and household expenses continued?
- What if medical, rehabilitation or care costs increased?
- What if their partner had to reduce their working hours to provide care?
- What if the client’s family needed to sell assets or draw down savings earlier than planned?
- What if they decided not to take out the recommended cover?
- What if they took the cover, and an insured event occurred in the future?
- Even without a dedicated “what if I do nothing?” button, advisers can use changes to income, expenses and work transitions to illustrate these different paths using Visualise.
The conversation becomes less about presenting a product and more about helping the client compare two possible futures: one where their existing financial situation is placed under significant pressure, and one where the recommended protection helps absorb some of that impact.
A practical example: four possible paths when income stops
Imagine a client who is the primary income earner in their household.
Their current cashflow supports the mortgage, everyday living costs, education expenses and regular savings. Their long-term plan is progressing, but there is not a large surplus available each month.
Rather than showing only two choices, the adviser can use Visualise to explore four scenarios. This makes it possible to compare not only the cost of protection, but also the potential consequences if an insured event occurs.
Scenario | What happens | What Visualise can help show |
|---|
1. Income continues with cover | The client continues working and pays the recommended insurance premiums. | The client’s usual cashflow and progress towards their goals, including the ongoing cost of protection. |
2. Income continues without cover | The client continues working but does not pay the insurance premiums. | The short-term cashflow improvement and any potential difference to longer-term wealth, alongside the financial risk that remains unprotected. |
3. An insured event occurs with cover | The client is unable to work, but has the recommended protection in place. | The impact of reduced or interrupted income, the ongoing premium cost and how an eligible benefit may support the client’s cashflow and broader plan. |
4. An insured event occurs without cover | The client is unable to work and has no insurance benefit available. | The same income and expense shock without the protection payment, including the potential need to draw on savings, reduce spending, pause contributions or sell investments earlier than intended. |
The third scenario is where the conversation can become particularly valuable. Income protection may replace part of the client’s income while they are unable to work.
Depending on the client’s needs and the policy terms, trauma cover may provide a lump-sum benefit following a specified critical illness or serious injury, while TPD cover may provide a lump sum if the client becomes permanently unable to work. These benefits may help with income gaps, medical or rehabilitation costs, debt, home modifications or other one-off expenses.Â
Using Visualise, the adviser can model the same insured event across scenarios three and four, while keeping the underlying assumptions as consistent as possible. The comparison can show the difference between an income shock with a potential insurance benefit and the same shock without one.
Premiums should remain visible in the scenarios where cover is held. This helps clients see that protection has an ongoing cashflow cost, while also making the trade-off clearer: paying premiums may reduce available cashflow today, but not paying them leaves the client exposed to carrying the full financial impact of an insured event themselves.Â
The purpose is to make the financial trade-offs visible and help the client understand what the advisers recommendation is designed to protect.
Paying premiums is also a what-if conversation
The same approach can be used to explore the cost of protection.
For example, an adviser could compare the impact of paying premiums from personal cashflow with paying them from super, where that is appropriate and consistent with the client’s circumstances and advice strategy.
That discussion can help clients consider:
- The effect of premiums on their current disposable income.
- The potential impact on their retirement savings if premiums are funded from super.
- How the balance between protection and retirement wealth may change over time.
- Whether their protection needs are likely to reduce as debt is repaid, dependants become financially independent or retirement approaches.
This is particularly useful for ongoing advice. The right level and funding method for insurance may not remain the same forever. Visualise can support a conversation about how the client’s protection needs, cashflow and broader financial position could evolve as their circumstances change.
Bringing the conversation into annual reviews
Risk advice is not a one-time conversation.
A client’s income, debt, dependants, employment arrangements, health, savings and retirement timeframe can all change. Each review creates an opportunity to revisit not only whether the existing cover remains appropriate, but also what the client’s financial position could look like if their circumstances changed.
At an annual review, an adviser could use Visualise to explore questions such as:
- Has the client’s income changed?
- Have their household expenses or debts increased or reduced?
- Are there new dependants or changing education costs?
- Has the client moved from accumulation towards retirement?
- Is the current premium still affordable?
- Does the client’s cover continue to match the financial risk they are trying to protect against?
- What would happen if the client reduced or cancelled the cover?
These questions help shift the review from “the policy is still in place” to “the protection strategy still makes sense for the client’s life today”.
From strategy cards to protection conversations
The strategy-card game at the roadshow was a simple way to demonstrate how different choices can change an outcome. The same principle applies to risk advice.
The cards might look different, but the conversation is similar:
- Keep the recommended cover.
- Reduce or cancel the cover.
- Pay premiums from cashflow.
- Consider funding premiums from super, where appropriate.
- Increase or reduce expenses.
- Stop working temporarily.
- Return to work with reduced income.
- Experience a major medical or family event.
Each scenario gives the client something tangible to respond to. It allows them to ask better questions and understand why the recommendation matters in the context of their wider financial position.
The value is in the conversation
Visualise does not replace the adviser’s expertise, the needs analysis process or the research and comparison work required to develop an appropriate insurance recommendation.
Its value is in helping advisers explain the consequences of different choices in a way that clients can see and engage with.
For risk advice, that may be the most important scenario of all:
“What happens if nothing changes?”
When clients can see the potential impact of an insured event on their income, expenses and plans, the value of protection becomes easier to understand. And when they can compare that with the impact of taking action, they are better equipped to make an informed decision.
Projections are not promises. But they can be powerful conversation starters.
Sometimes the clearest way to explain the value of insurance is not to show what the policy may pay. It is to show what the client may need to carry without it.
Important: This article is intended to prompt ideas for adviser conversations. Any modelling, assumptions and recommendations should be tailored to the client’s circumstances and supported by appropriate advice and disclosures.
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