UnderwriteMe
While not yet launched to the entire market and still in its trial phase, UnderwriteMe has undoubtedly got the market excited about a protection world where underwriting processes are more slick and unified, and clients can access a true ‘buy now’ price.
Ms Thomson at LifeSearch, currently trialling UnderwriteMe with its customers, said it is already demonstrating a completely new way of processing protection policies. “It is resulting in better outcomes for clients and efficiencies for intermediaries.
“They should be proud of what they’ve achieved to date, and what they will help improve in the future.”
Peter Chadborn, of advisory firm Plan Money, added “I am excited about the developments for 2016, specifically the launch of UnderwriteMe. I see no way for the protection industry to make real strides forward until consumers and advisers can facilitate a ‘buy now’ option”.
Michael Aldridge, of adviser London and Country, who will go live with the UnderwriteMe service in spring 2016, added: “UnderwriteMe going live signals a new and exciting era for the protection industry.
“At last we seem to be moving on from the antiquated and outdated processes that have held the industry back for many a year.”
Mergers and new entrants
Much anticipated and welcome news in 2015 were new entrants into the protection market, in the form of Scottish Widows and Canada Life returning, while Friends Life merged to become part of Aviva.
Alan Knowles, at Cura, commented: “I was slightly worried in early 2015 that the pool of providers was again narrowing, with Bright Grey and Scottish Provident merging and the possibility of Aviva and Friends Life becoming one in the future.
“However, the announcements of Canada Life and Scottish Widows coming back into the market should be a welcome addition to help keep the market competitive.”
Mr Lakey of CIExpert added: “New entrants augurs well for the market as it confirms commitment from major insurers and will likely tempt those advisers not currently looking at protection.”
Insurance premium tax
One of the most significant market changes last year was the increase in insurance premium tax from 6 per cent to 9.5 per cent.
While long-term protection is ring fenced from the charges, some short-term protection and many employee benefits are caught in its net. This widens the balance between short-term and long-term products, creating a significant opportunity for income protection sales in 2016 in particular.
SARs vs GPRs
The debate on whether the insurance industry’s use of subject access requests through the data protection act (SARs) in place of general practitioners reports (GPRs) in some situations is acceptable, raged through 2015.
