Bulletin 08, 2006
Round up
FSA confirms Pension Term Assurance can be sold under both COB and ICOB.
Life insurance rate changes from Nationwide and Bupa announced this week.
Four out of five people are set to pay more tax than they need to this year, an IFA Promotion survey suggests, stating that one way people are missing out is by forgetting to make simple IHT planning steps, such as writing life insurance into trust.
Comment of the week
'The media has a key role to play in addressing the issue of declined life insurance and critical illness claims through non-disclosure by getting the right messages across. This is partly in highlighting cases where life insurance companies have acted unfairly to help stamp out poor practice where it exists. However, it's equally important that the media apportions blame fairly when consumers have failed to disclose important information about their medical history. In these cases, the media can help to highlight the equally important message that it's essential to complete life insurance application forms carefully. Only by getting this balance right can we address both aspects of this key issue and ensure that the number of declined life insurance and critical illness claims goes down.'
Nick Kirwan,
Protection Market Director, Scottish Widows
Hero of the week
Britishinsurance.com
Credit where credit’s due once more. Last year we criticised various companies for naming 'PPI' products 'Income Protection' and we called upon them to change. Simon Burgess at British Insurance has done exactly that. His range of PPI products are now called Income Payment Protection, which is not perfect but certainly a step in the right direction.
It is risible that we expect consumers to understand the difference between PHI, IP, PPI, PMI, MPPI, IPP, IPI and various other combinations of the same words for what are very different products.
We call for the life insurance industry to work together to agree clear product names and bring an end to consumer confusion.
LifeSearch Awards - The Totals
Last week we told you that Royal Liver won four LifeSearch Life Insurance and Protection awards, but several of you have asked who has won what since our first awards three years ago. Since we launched the Life Insurance and Protection awards the combined winners are as follows:
Legal & General - 7
Bright Grey - 5
Friends Provident - 4
Royal Liver - 4
Liverpool Victoria - 3
BUPA - 2
Norwich Union - 1
Scottish Equitable - 1
Scottish Provident - 1
Back to Life Insurance Bulletins
