Protection Update 27^th August 2021

Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s protection update.

There were a couple of interesting news updates you should have seen this week.

The first one was an update about complaints.  That’s the first one I’ve seen since I’ve been here and I think it’s quite good that we get to hear about these situations, and give you the detail because you can always use this to protect yourselves in the future.

The protection complaint that Martin Brown, who is one of our Senior Complaints Handlers, mentioned this week was from a customer who believed his Legal & General Life and Critical illness policy, will not pay out due to his pre-existing health conditions.

He stated he has suffered Epilepsy since age 7, had brain surgery and also had a pacemaker fitted prior to the inception of the policy. The customer alleged that the adviser didn’t fully disclose his full medical history on his life and critical illness application…

What was the outcome following the investigation?

Investigation & Outcome

Well, Martin’s update says “The adviser completed the application form, with only epilepsy being disclosed. Once completed, the adviser emailed the customer all of the completed documents and asked them to confirm all documentation had been received.

Legal & General had also contacted the customer electronically to request the customer complete a check of their details to ensure the accuracy of all information supplied by the adviser on the application.

The customer confirmed the details were correct a few days later.

The investigation confirmed that the adviser had documented all information provided at the time of the sale by the customer.

The customer was given several opportunities to rectify any inaccuracies within the application and chose to confirm with Legal & General the information was correct.

Therefore; good news, the complaint was not upheld.

I think it’s good we hear things like this because it can help us to be vigilant.

Of course, you can’t be a mind reader and it’s really important for clients to check their disclosures to make sure the policy is going to actually pay, should they need to in the future.

But that made me think of the various providers that offer tele underwriting services.  I know not all do (including L&G) as per this case, but quite a few do offer different application routes which mean you don’t have to be the one to complete the application form with the client and that could completely remove this type of complaint being levied against you.

For example; if you did use the likes of British Friendly, Cirencester Friendly, Holloway, Royal London, Shepherds Friendly, Vitality or AIG with their instant life product; you can arrange for the client to be contacted, at a time of their convenience where they can complete the application with a trained nurse (usually up to 8pm or 9pm in the evening or even weekends).

Other providers have Delegated underwriting such as The Exeter where the client can complete the application themselves via a secured link. Royal London also has a similar ‘send to client’ service.

And beyond that, we’ve got LifeQuote Manage and Apply service which you will see when you launch into Solution Builder.

That’s available for every provider and it means the application journey is exactly the same; regardless of the provider in question.

I’ve actually arranged to record a podcast with LifeQuote in a few weeks’ time to get into a bit of the detail about that service, so watch this space.

Agents of Change

Agents of Change Video – Watch Now >>

Another protection news item that was floating around this week was from Vitality and it was about a campaign they are promoting at the moment called ‘Agents of Change’ and it’s all about the real value and benefit that your clients get by speaking to a proper expert adviser like you.

We’ve talked a lot over the last few years about better client outcomes and they have just published a short video which has different advisers giving their opinions about how better engagement with clients about their protection plans (especially over the last 18 months or so); really can result in benefits they really just wouldn’t achieve without expert advice.

I’ve put a link to the video in this week’s protection update and take a look out for our very own Roy Allaway from Taking Cover.  Roy is a real expert at Protection; he’s brilliant with his clients and he really is an expert at understanding Vitality protection proposition so they clearly wanted to hear what he had to say and he did a pretty good job.

Protection Insight Podcast – Vitality

Watch the Protection Insight Podcast with Vitality >>

Now talking about Vitality; I spent a bit of time with Paul Craven who is a protection specialist over at Vitality and went through the process of writing a protection policy into Trust.

It’s the same case study – John with a single life policy and he wants it to go to his unmarried partner.

What you should and will see by time we get to the end of this series of Trust podcasts is that each provider’s process is quite different and I really do think these podcasts are going to be a great resource for you to tap into going forward.

Vitality have a couple of very quirky differences from the rest of the market which I won’t spoil – but when you see what they are; it does make a lot of sense and it makes the job of writing policies into Trust with them, very straightforward.

It’s a slightly longer podcast than usual and that’s just down to some of the extra context about things to look out for along the way, so once again; I’ve added a link to the latest protection insight podcast with Vitality to this protection update.

So, that’s it from me for another week.

Next week, I will be on annual leave for just over a week, but watch out for my protection update as there will be 2x protection insight podcasts.

There will be another podcast where we look at a different provider’s trust process and also a bonus podcast.

It’s been one I’ve wanted to produce for a few years now.  It’s related to Trusts and I’ve already recorded it, so I’ll let you have it next Friday – but I’m not going to say any more than that.  Just watch out for it and let me know what you think.

So, that’ it from me.  Have a great weekend and I’ll speak to you soon!