Life Insurance Awards for LifeSearch
Round up
3 - the number of new life insurance and protection products launched since the last bulletin (Zurich, HSBC, Post Office)
6 - the number of Life Assurance and Protection categories where LifeSearch are short-listed for awards next month
7 - the number of life insurance rate changes since the last bulletin (L&G, RL, L&G, Scot Eq, LV, FP, L&G)
£25.55 - our average monthly life insurance cover premium
£35.59 - our average monthly income protection premium
£38.32 - our average monthly critical illness insurance premium
Comments of the week
'Before discussing what a new segmented advice sector might look like it is worth noting that non-advised life insurance and Protection sales, which are within the remit of the review, receive little mention in the Discussion Paper. This is a growing market in which we are seeing increasing problems and a misunderstanding over the nature of the service received. In particular, where there have been face to face or even telephone discussions, consumers are often confused over whether they have received a recommendation, i.e. advice, or merely information. We believe that any restructure or re-branding of advisory services must deliver absolute clarity over whether it constitutes advice in the regulatory sense and where the responsibility for the purchase of a financial product lies.'
AIFA report on the retail distribution review
'I wish someone had told me about this sooner. I would have done it years ago. We are now saving £480 a year on our life insurance and you can't sniff at that.'
LifeSearch customer Coral Randall, speaking to the Sunday Telegraph
Protection press watch
Even though August is a relatively quiet month in personal finance media we still counted 19 articles on life insurance and protection including The Times, Telegraph, Express and Yorkshire Post.
Hero of the week
Norwich Union
Who recently became the first life Assurance office to back date a new condition that was added to its Critical Illness Insurance policy this year. While this is a small step it means 100,000s of customers are now covered for an additional condition, with no increase in their premium, which can only be good for consumers.
It isn't costly, it isn't complicated. It's just the right thing to do.
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