We know that the impact of COVID-19 is being felt across our nation and we hope that you, your colleagues, family and friends remain safe and well.

As a key partner of The Right Mortgage and Protection, we wanted to reach out about British Friendly’s approach to COVID-19. We appreciate you and your colleagues will have had lots of questions from clients about their cover, and conversations with new clients about whether income protection is the right product to provide them with peace of mind in these uncertain times.

As a Friendly Society, owned by our Members, our priority is to protect our Members and we can confirm that all Members who took out a policy (or applied for one) before 14 March 2020 will be covered fully in the event of a coronavirus diagnosis in line with their policy terms and conditions.  We have taken steps to ensure flexibility when requesting medical evidence during the initial stages for those who claim for COVID-19.

We want to do everything we can to support our Members through the challenges they face. We have therefore decided to go further than our normal policy terms and consider claims for those who have symptoms and are self-isolating but have not yet received a positive diagnosis.  We have extended our self-certification period to 14 days to help those who may struggle to obtain medical certificates.

We have also extended our Premium Holiday (career break) to help those members who may find it difficult to pay premiums during this time and reduced the qualifying period to just one month’s premium paid. This option enables premiums to be suspended, meaning members don’t have to consider cancelling cover. Members will be unable to make any claim whilst on a Premium Holiday, but they will be able to re-instate cover when they’re financially able to without needing to re-apply and will preserve their valuable protection against the risk of sickness or injury.  We are also looking at other ways to support members and we also have our discretionary Mutual Benefits programme which provides both financial and personal benefits, such as access to a Virtual GP at a time when the NHS is so strained, and counselling.

Our guiding principle is to try and help as many people as possible to get the cover they need.  However, we have also had to acknowledge the uncertainty of the current emergency on future claims.  We have been reluctant to rush into changes to the cover we can offer your clients.  But, we’re sure you’ll also understand that as a Society owned by our Members, our first commitment has to be to ensure that we protect the Society for our current and future Members.  We therefore reluctantly applied an exclusion for COVID-19 (coronavirus) to all new policies from 14 March.

The situation is, of course, fast-changing and we will continue to follow developments closely.  Full details of our approach can be found on our website at https://advisers.britishfriendly.com/ and we will update our frequently asked questions to keep you abreast of key information that may help you and your clients.

The market has seen a spike in interest in income protection cover, and we are keen to support you in ensuring that the new business your firm submits is from clients who have an enduring need for cover. We’re sure you agree that it’s important for your business that clients understand the cover they are buying, and we’re ready to work with you to avoid a sharp increase in lapses when the crisis is over.  Our Distribution Team can help you with tailored support as you consider your sales processes.

Finally, we wanted to say thank you for your continued support.  We know so many of your teams will be going above and beyond to support your clients and colleagues during this difficult time.  If you have any queries we can help with, please contact any member of our Distribution Team.

May we wish you and your families a safe and peaceful weekend.