As we enter this unprecedented period of disruption, we thought it would be useful to keep you informed about our business continuity plans at AIG Life and offer you our full support. The good news is as we are predominately digitally based, we continue to operate pretty much on a business as usual basis.
Following the recent guidance issued by the UK Government, we have now implemented our Business Continuity contingency plan and AIG staff are now working from home wherever possible. This transition has gone smoothly – systems and phones are working well and we have achieved this so far without any break in our service operations or SLAs. The only change to note is our opening times for our Customer Service, Underwriting & Claims line – these are now 9am to 6pm. This enables us to meet our promises to customers and advisers in core business hours and deliver the best possible service and support when needed most.
One of the main business processing issues you may have already found is that GP surgeries are not able to respond to GPR requests quickly, if at all. This is totally understandable as their focus is elsewhere. At AIG, we expect minimal impact from this as we have no automatic limits for GP reports and less than 8% are requested.
Medical screenings are still being conducted – nurses will be asking any customer the standard Coronavirus questions prior to the appointment which are;
- Asking them if any countries they have recently visited or returned from are in quarantine
- Have they been in contact with anyone who has the virus?
If they answer yes to any of these responses the nurse will postpone the appointment for a 14 day period before re-booking.
To assist you, please see below some of the key questions we are being asked In terms of our underwriting approach, you may find some helpful Q&As in this link .
Will you insure someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus?
If a new customer who has been diagnosed with coronavirus approached AIG to buy a life insurance policy, we would postpone any underwriting decision until they make a full recovery. We do this with any application where we’re aware of a potential health risk that is still being assessed.
What happens to my client’s application if they disclose having been to a high-risk area?
If applicants disclose that they have recently (i.e. within one month) returned from a high-risk area, as defined by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, then we will postpone our underwriting decision for a period of time based on the individual circumstances and global situation at the time.
If my client is isolated or quarantined can they claim on their income protection policy?
Income protection is paid subject to the illness continuing beyond our defined deferred period – which for AIG is a minimum of 4 weeks but can be up to 52 weeks. If after a period of quarantine an illness develops and goes beyond the deferred period, we will consider a claim. All claims will be based on whether the individual meets the definition of disability in their policy. We would not expect coronavirus to be an extended illness in the vast majority of cases. Recovery can be expected within a few weeks.
We also understand some of your customers will be concerned about paying insurance premiums should they have financial difficulty and we note the government’s stance regarding The 3 month mortgage payment holiday. We have had several requests to support this. Please be assured we are doing what we can at the moment to review our processes to assist you and your customers during this challenging period and will revert with any positive amends as soon as possible.
We have put together the below page which will be kept up to date on any changes to our business/processing due to COVID.
