Has there been any change in Legal & General’s Philosophy in Respect of Underwriting or Claims as a result of Coronavirus?
We have not changed our underwriting or claims philosophy, but of course keep the situation under review. Customers should continue to answer the questions on our application form truthfully and don’t need to tell is about anything we have not asked about.
As with any disclosed condition where a recent diagnosis has been made and the outcome and the severity is unknown, if a customer tells us they have the virus or that they are being tested for it, we will have to postpone their application until they have fully recovered or they know their test result and are symptom free.
Is there any additional questions asked about where a customer has recently visited etc.?
We have not made any changes to the application questions we ask about recent travel and have no immediate plans to do so because the virus is widespread.
How will self isolation impact a potential Income Protection Benefit (IPB) claim?
People may be off work due to self-isolation without necessarily experiencing symptoms. Our product terms state that individuals would need to have a medical condition to qualify under the income protection (IP) Terms and Conditions (T&C’s). However, we will consider the advised period of self-isolation as counting towards any work absence, even if the coronavirus (Covid-19) has not yet been diagnosed.
If a customer got coronavirus (Covid-19) that led to respiratory failure, would we pay on a Critical Illness Cover (CIC) claim?
We don’t foresee customers developing a critical illness (CI) as a result of the coronavirus (Covid-19). However, as long as customers have answered their application forms truthfully, we would pay their claim.
This goes for Term, CI and income protection (IP). In the case of CI, if the coronavirus (Covid-19), which in itself is not a listed critical illness, were to lead to complications that did cause a named critical illness we would assess the claim as normal.
It seems insurers have changed their stance around booking screenings due to the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19). The question is now being asked if whether the customer has visited Italy or China recently? If this is the case, the screenings are being are being postponed for two weeks. Are Legal and General following this stance?
Our service providers have adopted a common sense good medical and nursing practice when visiting customers. They are doing all they can to minimise disruption and inconvenience to our customers.
Claim Overview
We have assessed our terms and conditions for all of our products in relation to coronavirus (Covid-19). Our product categories are listed below:
- Term: If death occurred due to coronavirus (Covid-19) we would honour valid claims.
- Critical Illness (CI): Coronavirus (Covid-19) isn’t a defined illness within our product offering. However, if a complication of having coronavirus (Covid-19) did lead to a claimable CI condition, we would honour valid claims.
- Income Protection (IP): People may be off work due to self-isolation without necessarily experiencing symptoms. Our product terms state that the individuals would need to have a medical condition to qualify under the IP terms and conditions (T&Cs). However, we will consider the advised period of self-isolation as counting towards any work absence, even if the coronavirus (Covid-19) has not yet been diagnosed.
