Bulletin 18, 2006
Round up
1 - the number of life insurance rate changes this week, namely Legal & General
2 - the number of product features removed or reduced from life insurance, income protection and critical illness policies this week by Bright Grey
3 - the number of Pension Term Assurance launches this week: Norwich Union, Bright Grey and HSBC - we expect BUPA to follow in June
14 - the number of health awareness campaigns taking place this month, which included Cancer prevention week
20 - the percentage of respondents who according to research from HSA felt that taking time off work in the form of sick leave was a company benefit
77 - the average number of years it could take consumers in debt to get back into the black
100 - the percentage of advisers we asked who were confused by Marks & Spencer's claim this week to provide 'personalised' life insurance without providing any advice
£71,682,903 - the total amount of life assurance and protection cover arranged by LifeSearch last week.
Income protection and deduction of benefits
At the IPTF (Income Protection Taskforce) meeting this week an interesting point was raised by Defaqto regarding the lack of clarity on exactly what could be deducted from an Income Protection claim payment. While the treatment of payments such as state benefits and MPPI is relatively clear in the product literature, issues such as waiver of premium and even Family Income Benefit CIC (critical illness cover paid as an income instead of a lump sum) are not.
We need a greater degree of standardisation and transparency regarding this issue in the income protection market. Along with maximum benefits and product names we have called for standardisation on this issue before and do so again now. Not all markets and products benefit from standardisation and no independent adviser wants all products to look the same, but there is a strong case for aligning specific areas where uncertainty exists, such as automatic deductions, which LifeSearch believes will benefit both the consumer and the product long-term. And if any provider attempted to deduct Family Income Benefit CIC payments from a LifeSearch Income Protection policy - we would see you in court!
Because that's what a good life insurance adviser does, acts for their client in every area - including the payment of claims.
Non-disclosure...
We were told this week of a customer who wrote to his life insurance company stating that now he had given up smoking for a year that he would like a revised quote on his life insurance. Willingly the life insurance office obtained his details from the existing policy in order to provide the new quote. They were, however, shocked to find that the customer had originally applied as a non-smoker.
Comment of the week - on our latest life insurance protection report 'Policy of Truth'
'I thought it was good. Well balanced yet challenging.'
Richard Walsh
Head of Health and Protection, ABI
