The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) is planning to boost its advice and support to members working with victims of economic abuse.

The professional body with 120,000 members has welcomed recommendations from the Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) group’s most recent report and will develop new guidance for professionals working with victims of economic abuse.

The SEA recently published a report outlining the impact of life insurance policies on victim-survivors of economic abuse.

Abuse can include controlling partners taking over the family’s finances and wasting or misusing money. In some cases controlling partners have taken out life insurance policies on their partners to threaten victim-survivors and benefit from their death.

The report highlighted research by Aviva that showed two in five British adults have experienced a form of economic or financial abuse at some point during their lives.

The report recommends that member organisations should develop an ‘industry-led code of best practice regarding how firms can support victims-survivors’.

The CII will work with members to produce good practice guidance for professionals, using the case studies and recommendations for practitioners in the SEA report as a starting point.

The CII has commended the report and has agreed to develop its own guidance based on its recommendations.

Dr Matthew Connell, director of policy and public affairs at the CII, said financial professionals needed to place a high priority on the mistreatment of vulnerable people.

He said: “The report raises significant issues for insurers and advisers, and we will work with members to update our materials, to reflect the insights shared in this report. The Consumer Duty places a high priority on the treatment of potentially vulnerable groups, and this report will allow us to evolve our support for members on the implementation of Consumer Duty guidelines.”

Sara D'Arcy, head of advocacy and communications at Surviving Economic Abuse, said: “Perpetrators of domestic abuse use every means possible to control a partner or ex-partner, including taking out life insurance policies to threaten victim-survivors and financially benefit from their deaths even after separation.

“In the worst cases, some abusers have used the financial benefits of taking out life insurance as an incentive to kill a victim. We are pleased that the Chartered Insurance Institute has committed to tackling this issue by developing best practice guidance to help firms and practitioners support economic abuse victim-survivors. We welcome the opportunity to support the CII in producing the guidance and continue to raise awareness of this important issue."

• Life insurance and economic abuse: The challenges faced by victim-survivors of economic abuse in accessing and ending life insurance protection was written by Professor James Davey, of the University of Bristol, and FCA Consumer panel member, Johnny Timpson.