Bulletin 32, 2006
Round up
2 - the number of Pension Term Assurance providers in the intermediary market who do not include an option to switch out of the pensions regime, this following Bright Grey’s decision this week to add the option to their Pension Term Assurance contract
3 - the number of life insurance rate changes announced since the last bulletin, Legal & General, Scottish Provident and Scottish Equitable
33% - the percentage of consumers who bought life insurance and protection without advice who thought they had received advice
48.63% - the percentage of new callers who transact life insurance and protection business with LifeSearch
£750,000 - the largest single Critical Illness claim paid so far by Bupa
LifeSearch Awards 2007
A quick reminder that our fourth annual life insurance awards will take place on Wednesday 21st February at the usual venue – the Hiscox Arts café in the City. The voting will be carried out towards the end of December and the entry process remains unchanged – there isn’t one.
All relevant LifeSearch staff vote in each category, all votes are equal and the one with the most votes wins. We are, however, considering adding two new categories, namely ‘Best Tele-underwriting Life Insurance Provider’ and ‘The TCF Award’. The TCF award will focus on those life insurance providers who excel in areas such as claims management, integrity, fairness, openness and honesty, clear literature and those who also seek to help advisers in this area.
If you do not usually attend the LifeSearch life insurance awards and would like to come along on the day please contact us.
Comments of the week
‘It is surprising that the OFT has decided to include prime MPPI in its proposed referral to the Competition Commission.’
Michael Coogan
CML Director General
‘We are fully aware that this is an area in which standards need to be raised and have been working with the FSA to do this.’
Rob Griffiths
AMI Associate Director
While we sympathise with AMI the CML has had years, if not decades, to raise standards in this market but as far as we can see has instead consistently ignored 100s of calls for change and improvement because the market has been so profitable for it’s members. We’ve lost count of the amount of times we’ve spoken with mortgage advisers, and even mortgage compliance managers, who have little interest in the detail and suitability of the insurance products sold alongside loans, just the additional revenue stream created. We’re not saying we need more regulation - but we do need more effective implementation of the regulation we already have. To pretend that everything is rosy in this market is disingenuous and the CML know it.
Hero of the week
Standard Life
Who last week updated their paid and non-paid Critical Illness claims statistics.
The average critical illness claim value was £53,546, 60% of claimants were aged between 40 and 59, 8% of claims were made by people over 60, at the time of claim, 60% of policies were ‘in-force’ for more than four years, 58% of claimants were female, 42% were male and two child benefit claims paid (both for Leukaemia).
14% of claims were declined in the first half of 2006. 6% were declined because the claim did not meet policy definitions and 8% were declined due to non-disclosure on the life insurance company's application form.
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