Life insurance leads for new advisers
Life insurance leads can work for new advisers once you’re cleared to advise, your firm or principal approves the seller and you can call each enquiry quickly. Buy small, capped batches of fresh enquiries from a budget you could afford to lose, and keep savings for the months before commission catches up.
Test with about 25 leads
Illustrative example: 25 leads at £40 cost £1,000 and, at an assumed 8% conversion, might produce two policies.
Fresh, exclusive, one product
Aged and shared leads make for harder first calls. Start with enquiries in the product you know best, from a seller you can pause.
Judge batch one on calls
Illustrative example: at the same assumed 8%, 25 leads would produce no policy about 12% of the time, so track speed, contacts and fact-finds.
Expect months out of pocket
Illustrative example: buying 25 leads a month, you’re still £750 down after three months, and clawback usually lasts two or four years.
Should new advisers buy life insurance leads?
Yes, once you’re ready: bought enquiries put real conversations in your diary at a pace you choose. The catch is that you pay for each one before you’ve learned to make the most of it.
Two things make the early months cheaper: start with people you already know (our guide to free life insurance leads covers how), then buy in small amounts with a firm cap, or test generating your own leads once you can afford to lose the spend. Whether bought leads pay off depends as much on your process as on the seller, as our guide to whether life insurance leads actually work explains.
Mortgage advisers adding protection should start with their own clients. Mortgage advisers placed about 36% of intermediated protection policies in 2024, and more than 40% of mortgage holders have no life insurance, according to the FCA’s interim market study report. Raise protection in every mortgage conversation, then buy leads to fill gaps in your diary.
What to have in place before your first lead
- You can advise on and arrange protection, through your firm’s permissions or an appointment as an appointed representative (AR) that covers it. Check the FCA Financial Services Register: an AR can’t start insurance distribution until it’s listed.
- Your firm or principal allows bought leads, and you know which sellers it accepts and what to keep on file. Where a seller’s status isn’t clear, check with your compliance adviser.
- Your insurer agencies are set up, so you can quote, apply and be paid.
- You log every lead in one place, a CRM or a spreadsheet, with the same stages from first call to policy on risk.
- You know who controls the data, how TPS screening and privacy information work, and that the controller has paid the ICO data protection fee if it needs to.
- Someone experienced has agreed to review your early calls or files.
How should a new adviser start buying leads?
The 90-day plan below turns a first budget into two small batches with a review between them.
- Weeks 1 to 2: set up before you spendConfirm the seller with your principal, set up your CRM stages, rehearse your call opening with a supervisor and agree a contact plan.
- Weeks 3 to 6: a first batch of about 25 leadsCap delivery at one or two a day so you can call each lead as it arrives, and record every attempt and outcome. If fewer arrive, let the batch run longer.
Week 7: review with someone experiencedGo through your calls, fact-finds and the measures below with a supervisor or senior adviser, and agree one or two changes.
Weeks 8 to 11: a second batch, one change at a timeBuy a similar batch under the same cap and change only what you agreed, so you can tell whether it helped.- Weeks 12 to 13: add up the money and decideTotal your lead spend, policies on risk, advances received and cases in underwriting. Then carry on, step up gradually, or pause and work on your skills.
Sixty days of buying won’t show lapse patterns, so keep tracking cancellations by source. If you already have a client bank and want to compare several channels, the 90-day channel plan in our guide to getting life insurance leads fits better.
Why flexible terms matter more when you’re new
A minimum term or monthly spend asks you to bet on a conversion rate you don’t know yet. Before you pay, check the minimum term and spend, how daily caps and pausing work, and what happens to money you haven’t used.
What to measure in your first batches
Small numbers swing on chance. Illustrative example: if 8% of leads became policies, a batch would produce no policy at all about 43% of the time with 10 leads, 12% with 25 and 4% with 40. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
Judge your first batch on what you control, and the source on policies once you’ve bought enough to see a pattern; our guide to running a fair trial of a lead seller shows how to size that test.
| Measure | Question for your week 7 review |
|---|---|
| Time to first call | Which hours did I miss, and should my daily cap or buying hours change? |
| Leads reached | Did I make every planned attempt, at varied times, using only the contact methods the customer agreed to? |
| Fact-finds completed | Where did calls end, and what did I say just before? |
| Recommendations and applications | Did I explore the need or quote too early, and is each premium comfortably affordable? |
| Policies on risk | Why did each case that wasn’t taken up fall away? |
| Credits and cancellations | Were my claims on the seller’s stated grounds, and what do any cancelled files have in common? |
How much should a new adviser budget for their first leads?
Before you buy, hold two amounts in savings: the lead spend for both batches, since commission may not arrive inside the quarter, and your living costs for the same months. Money you can afford to write off keeps pressure out of your calls. Each customer still needs your full, supervised advice from the first call.
Start from what a policy earns you
Initial commission on UK protection is usually 170% to 250% of the first year’s premium, according to the FCA’s interim report on the pure protection market (2024 data). Illustrative example, using two published premiums:
| Case | Yearly premium | Initial commission | Leads at £40 it pays for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which?: £200,000 level term over 25 years, non-smoker aged 31 (April 2026, average of the five cheapest quotes) | About £98 | About £170 to £250 | 4 to 6 |
| Average new level term policy in 2024 (Swiss Re Term & Health Watch 2025) | £375 | About £640 to £940 | 16 to 23 |
The planner below works back from the policies you want. Its £40 a lead and 8% conversion are illustrations, not a quote, a Protection Connect price or a benchmark. It assumes £750 commission a policy, within the average case’s range, so if your network or principal keeps a share, enter only what reaches you.
Calculator
What will your first month of leads cost?
Start from the policies you want, or switch to the budget you have.
Use your own figure if you have one.
Add your commission
- Monthly lead budget
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- Leads a month
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- Leads a week
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- Daily limit for optional automatic buying
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- Commission after lead costs
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Illustrative planner: the default figures are examples, not Protection Connect results or a promise of lead volumes. The daily figure divides the monthly budget by 30.4 days.
Illustrative example: two policies at 8% needs 25 leads, so £1,000 a month at £40 each, about six leads a week or £33 a day. Open “Add your commission” and £750 a policy leaves about £500 after lead costs, before any network share, clawback, other costs and tax. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
Lead costs there take two thirds of the commission. For indicative UK prices by lead type, see our guide to what life insurance leads cost, and set your ceiling with the maximum price method in our exclusive leads guide.
Plan for indemnity commission and clawback
About 96% of UK protection commission was paid upfront on indemnity terms in 2024, according to the FCA’s interim report: an advance once the policy starts. If the policy is cancelled or lapses within the clawback period, generally two or four years (FCA, MS24/1.3), you repay part or all of it. An established adviser nets clawbacks off a stream of new advances; a new adviser has no stream yet.
Illustrative example: you buy 25 leads a month at £40, place one policy in month 1 and two in each month after, each earning £750, and commission arrives the month after you buy the lead. Underwriting that needs medical evidence can take longer.
| Month | Lead spend | Commission received | Cash position at month end |
|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | £1,000 | £0 | £1,000 down |
| Month 2 | £1,000 | £750 | £1,250 down |
| Month 3 | £1,000 | £1,500 | £750 down |
| Month 4, no new leads | £0 | £1,500 | £750 up |
Three months in, you’ve placed five policies and are still £750 down, with a low point of £1,250 down in month 2, so in this example your savings need to cover at least that on top of living costs. The £750 you’re up in month 4 is before any network share, other costs and tax, and all £3,750 of those advances can still be clawed back. These figures are examples, not Protection Connect results.
Each insurer sets its own clawback terms. Illustrative example: if an advance were recovered in equal monthly slices over 48 months, a £750 advance on a policy cancelled after 12 months would leave £562.50 to repay; over 24 months it would be £375. The lead cost is gone either way, so a cancelled case costs you twice.
Early lapses do happen: non-advised intermediated sales on four-year clawback had a 23% first-year lapse rate in 2024, and some firms told the FCA that some early lapses may be due to poor-quality leads supplied by lead generators.
- Keep part of each advance in a separate account until the policy is well into its clawback period.
- Ask your network or principal whether it holds back part of each advance, and how it recovers clawback from you.
- Tie your next batch to policies on risk, not applications submitted.
- Check each premium is affordable and the cover fits before you submit: a policy the customer can keep paying is the one most likely to stay on risk.
Which life insurance leads should new advisers start with?
Start with the leads that give you the fairest conversations, not the cheapest. A cheap lead isn’t a cheap start if it puts you on the hardest calls in the market. Our guides to the best life insurance leads for each type of firm and what cheap leads really cost go further.
| Lead type | What it asks of you | Fit for your first 90 days |
|---|---|---|
| Your own contacts and referrals | Confidence to ask, and patience | A good start: free apart from your time, and the warmest conversations you’ll have |
| Fresh exclusive enquiries | A quick first call and a clear opening. The customer asked to be contacted and no other firm has the enquiry | Often the best fit for a first budget, because you control the first call. Costs more per lead |
| Shared leads | Speed and persistence against several firms calling the same person | Hard going: the customer may have heard several pitches already |
| Aged leads | Cold calls to people who enquired weeks or months ago, plus extra consent and TPS checks | Better left until your process is proven |
| Hotkeys (live transfers) | Advising straight away on a call someone else opened, and checking how consent was gathered | Demanding at first |
The trade-off is price. Exclusive enquiries cost more per lead than shared or aged data, so the case for them rests on cost per policy and on the quality of your early conversations. Our comparison of exclusive and shared leads shows when sharing can make sense.
Start with the product you know best
Set your criteria around the cases you can advise on well. If your training centred on family and mortgage-related term cover, start there, with the ages and cover bands your panel suits, and widen them once you’re comfortable.
Small cases can cost more in leads than they earn, so where a seller lets you set a minimum cover amount, use it; on Protection Connect, that also excludes enquiries that don’t state one.
Over-50s enquiries need particular care. Guaranteed acceptance plans typically have a 12 or 24 month waiting period for death that isn’t accidental (FCA, MS24/1.3), premiums paid can exceed the payout, and some customers will be in vulnerable circumstances (FCA guidance FG21/1). Ask your supervisor to review your first over-50s cases, and read our guide to handling over-50s enquiries and vulnerable customers before you buy any.
Start with fresh enquiries, at a pace you control.
Exclusive life and over-50s enquiries. See each lead’s summary and price before you buy. No fixed-term contract or minimum monthly spend.
How should new protection advisers prepare for their first calls?
Speed is the easiest skill to fix, because it is mostly a diary problem. A 2011 Harvard Business Review study of US firms found those contacting web leads within an hour were about seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that waited longer. We know of no published UK protection equivalent, but someone who has just asked about cover is still thinking about it.
Rehearse the opening, and agree the paperwork
Agree your opening with your compliance team, then rehearse it with a supervisor on a fictional lead. Practise explaining how you came to have their details, answering “is this a sales call?” and moving to a fact-find without quoting a price. Our guide to what to say on the first call has an opening to adapt.
If a seller supplied the customer’s details, UK GDPR requires your privacy information, including where you got the details, to reach them by your first contact or within one month if that’s sooner. Your status disclosure must reach them in good time before any policy is taken out, so agree the wording for both with your compliance team before your first call. A principal’s approval of a seller doesn’t cover how you call: TPS screening, consent that names your firm for email or text, and the Consumer Duty still apply to you, as the UK rules in our main leads guide explain.
Mistakes that cost new advisers cases
- Quoting a price before you know what the cover is for, or ending the call at “I was just looking at prices” without asking. If they only want a price, respect that.
- Calling once, reaching voicemail and moving on. Many sales need several contact attempts, and our contact plan for real-time leads gives a schedule. Use only the contact methods the customer agreed to.
- Promising a premium or an underwriting outcome before the insurer has seen the application.
- Pressing someone who has said no. Record it, stop, and add them to your do-not-contact list.
- Replacing cover someone already holds without a clear benefit to them. Record why any switch is in their interest, and have your early replacement cases checked.
- Buying more leads to fix a weak stage, when the fix is in the call.
Use your network’s support
Your firm must make sure you’re competent for the work (SYSC 28), so agree a first-year competence plan and which cases you’ll hand over or have checked: a complicated medical history, trusts, business protection or a customer who may be vulnerable. “Let me check that with a colleague and call you back” beats a confident guess.
Ask too whether your firm records calls for training: the FCA doesn’t require it for pure protection, and if yours does, the people you call should be told. Our guide to what appointed representatives should ask their principal has the fuller list.
How does Protection Connect work for new advisers?
Enquiries come from our own websites, LifeAdviser and 50Life, and each goes to one broker only. We supply advised firms only; an AR must be a current full AR whose appointment has started. If your firm already has an account, ask its owner or an admin to invite you.
There’s no subscription, no fixed-term contract and no minimum monthly spend. The minimum lead price is £50. With a saved card, balance first; otherwise, pay in full by card. For optional automatic buying, set lead types, age bands, a maximum price and a daily limit. You pay the current price, up to your maximum.
You can pause any time, and if you close your account, the unused balance is paid back within 14 days, less anything you owe. Lead estimates are a guide, not a promise of volume.
Each enquiry opens in My leads as soon as you buy, with an email alert and the contact methods the customer agreed to. The notice on LifeAdviser and 50Life says their details may go to one FCA authorised adviser firm, or one of its appointed representatives, that buys enquiries through Protection Connect and may contact them about their enquiry. It doesn’t name your firm. Say who you are, mention their LifeAdviser or 50Life enquiry and contact them only about it.
Screen numbers against the TPS where required before calling, and ask your compliance adviser how PECR applies when you contact these enquiries.
You can claim a credit within 48 hours of delivery on set grounds, such as a phone number not in service; approved claims go back to your balance in full, but a customer not answering or buying isn’t a ground.
Where we’re not the answer. We’re not a cheap per-lead source, and we supply only life, over-50s and income protection enquiries. See our main guide and how it works.
Questions new advisers ask about buying leads
Only what you could afford to lose while you learn. Illustrative example: a first batch of about 25 leads at £40 costs £1,000 over four weeks. At an assumed 8% conversion that might produce two policies, or none, so judge it on speed, contacts and fact-finds.
We know of no independent published UK benchmark for how often bought protection leads become policies, and US figures don’t transfer to UK advice. Rates vary with the lead type, the product, how fast you call and your skill. Plan with a modest assumption, then replace it with your own rate per source, counting only policies on risk.
Usually not for your first calls. Aged and shared leads tend to mean the hardest conversations: people who enquired long ago, or who have already heard from several firms. Aged data also needs careful consent and TPS checks. A few fresh enquiries from people who asked to be contacted cost more each but give you a fairer start.
No FCA rule requires one for pure protection advice, but your firm must make sure you have the knowledge and ability the work needs (SYSC 28). The 15-hour CPD minimum stopped applying to pure protection staff on 9 December 2025. Your principal or employer may still expect a professional qualification, such as one from the CII.
Wait until two things are true: the FCA Register lists you, because an AR can’t start advising on or arranging cover until it does, and your principal has agreed to you buying leads and from which sellers. On Protection Connect you can apply from the date your appointment starts.
If you were paid on indemnity terms and the policy is cancelled or lapses within the clawback period, usually two or four years, you repay part or all of the advance, often from future commission. You don’t get the lead’s price back either, so keep part of each advance in reserve until your policies have settled.
Usually weeks rather than days. Indemnity commission is normally paid once the policy is on risk, after your advice, the application and underwriting, and medical evidence can add time. Illustrative example: buying £1,000 of leads a month for three months, you might not be back in credit until month 4.
Sources and further reading
- FCA: Financial Services Register
- FCA: Market study into the distribution of pure protection products, interim report (MS24/1.4, January 2026)
- FCA: Structure of the UK pure protection market for retail customers (MS24/1.3, September 2025)
- Which?: More people are looking for affordable life insurance, but what does it actually cost? (April 2026)
- Swiss Re: Term & Health Watch 2025 (2024 new business data)
- FCA: Guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers (FG21/1)
- Harvard Business Review: The short life of online sales leads (Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington, March 2011, US data)
- FCA Handbook: SYSC 28, knowledge, ability and good repute in insurance distribution
