Life insurers will increasingly look to the workplace wrap market, as their platforms fail to make ground in the individual arena, according to e-business specialists, Dunstan Thomas.
Its prediction comes as Friends Provident hinted it may revive its wrap platform to target the corporate market.
Corporate platforms, often known as workplace wraps, allow employers to offer a range of employee benefits through a single, online portal.
They are intended to go beyond traditional benefits such as life insurance and a group pension, and allow employees to purchase financial products such as ISAs and other investment vehicles.
Chris Read, chairman of Dunstan Thomas, believes the wrap market will divide in the future, with large insurers opting to provide for the corporate market, while independent firms continue to focus on individual business sold through advisers.
“I think advisers will continue to attract the attention of independent wrap providers in the future, while the insurers will have to look to new markets, and workplace wrap seems a good place to start,” says Read.
Friends Provident is one insurer which is currently exploring opportunities to create a corporate platform, after abandoning its adviser-focused wrap in early 2008.
A Friends Provident spokesman says: “We think the corporate platform could be the next stage in the corporate pensions market, and is a means to offer other products to potential customers.
