Accidental HNW Customers – Do you know them?

The UK is undergoing something of a mass migration as a result of lockdown life, with people moving away from cities and urban life and heading out of town in their droves to more rural areas, be it coast or countryside. People are no longer prioritising being close to their place of work, and instead are seeking access to outside space and often, bigger homes.

When you compare the cost of a one bed flat in London (for the purpose of this article let’s say £500,000), with what’s on offer in Bedford, you could end up with a huge 4 or 5 bed home with a big garden, extra garage, a summer house, etc. Obviously different areas offer different types of property, such as the Cotswolds, where there are lots of charming character properties. It’s this jump in property that many people might not really recognise and could make them better suited to a high net worth policy, where they might need a bit more cover with their insurance.

It’s worth having these conversations with your customers and educating them about the increased cover that they might need. For example storm damage of period buildings will be a lot more costly to restore due to the material costs required to keep it aligned with the unique character of the property.

It’s not just home moves that can cause your customers to become a HNW customer. They may gain an inheritance of antique heirlooms or jewellery, which may not be covered fully under a standard policy. After sensitively offering your condolences at the loss of a loved one, it would also be of assistance for you to check your client’s insurance cover to ensure it is sufficient to protect them and help to restore or replace precious items. Whilst we wouldn’t want anyone to damage or lose a loved one’s cherished item, it would add additional anguish if they were in a scenario where their insurance did not provide enough cover.

Here’s some tips to help you identify these accidental HNW customers, as it’s likely they have not considered themselves as these before

• Moving home from inner city to rural areas – have a chat with them about their new home as they may not have considered the increased assets they now have. You could use this as a prompt to ask existing HNW customers if they know of people who are on the move, as they might recommend you to a friend!
• Change in property type – familiarise yourself with areas that are gaining popularity and the unique characteristics of these property (i.e. local stone materials).
• Family members upsizing homes – this may be common amongst your clients’ children as the pandemic and stamp duty breaks may have accelerated their property journey by several years.

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