Bulletin 21, 2006
Round up
1- the number of life insurance rate changes this week, namely Legal & General.
1 - the number of Pension Term Assurance product amendments with Scottish Equitable opting to add a 'switch-out' option - a welcome addition!
4 - the number of health events in July, including Alzheimer's awareness week.
5 - the number of life assurance and protection providers on the Home of Choice life insurance and protection panel after Bright Grey announced their addition this week.
6719 - the number or workers followed by the Canadian team at Laval University, showing that chronic job stress can raise blood pressure.
£13bn - the total amount of life insurance and protection cover arranged by LifeSearch since 1998.
£1tn - the total amount of mortgage debt that now exists in the UK according to the Bank of England. And a lot of it is not covered by life insurance!
Cover survey
12% of IFAs say they don't think a stakeholder protection life insurance and protection product would help plug the life insurance and protection gap, while 88% disagreed.
Next month's survey asks whether more providers will follow in the footsteps of Prudential and launch serious illness cover for critical illness.
Comments of the week
'You may have heard about some companies not paying out on life insurance claims - we don't want yours to be one of them. The truth is, life insurance companies can only provide life insurance if they know the full facts about the person they're insuring, so please read each question carefully and take the time to answer them in full. Remember, one of the reasons for buying life insurance is to protect those closest to you. So, to give you the peace of mind you're paying for, please tell us everything. Don't assume that we will contact your doctor to fill in any gaps. We promise we'll only take into account the information that we feel is relevant to your application and in most cases, we'll be able to offer you the kind of life insurance cover that's right for you.'
Norwich Union, quote taken from their new life insurance non-disclosure consumer fact-sheet
'Although Pension Term Assurance could provide members with business opportunities, there are also specific risks associated with the sale of these specific life insurance products and members will need to put systems and controls in place to address and manage these risks should they decide to include it in their firm's product range.'
Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, quote taken from their new member life insurance fact-sheet.
Hero of the week
Standard Life
Who this week announced the results of its full year review of Critical Illness claims for 2005. The key findings were that Standard Life paid out a total of £19.8 million on 342 critical illness claims in 2005, 82% of critical illness claims were paid in 2005 compared to 80% at the last full year review. 18% of critical illness claims were rejected, of these, 10% were declined because the claim did not meet policy definitions and 8% were declined due to non-disclosure.
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