Feature set flexibility lifts Tower higher

Tower chief executive, retail life, David Callander said evolution of products and services was the name of the game in the risk industry.

“We have had two upgrades of our products in the past year, with the emphasis on making the products easier to access,” he said.

“We are more lenient on the amount of information we require from the client, such as in income protection, where we require a simple application form and personal health statement for lower amounts insured.”

Callander said this eliminates time-consuming visits to doctors and health specialists.

“The number of times we ask for a visit to the doctor will now be limited,” he said.

“This is good for the clients, advisers and it is saving us time.”

Callander said clients now fall into two categories: those who can be processed quickly and those who need to go though a careful underwriting process.

Another change to Tower’s disability policies was acceptance of the fact that people work longer.

“We have now raised the age ceiling from 65 to 70, and providing cover for older people will be a trend for the future,” he said.

Talking advisers through these changes and having teams visit them are examples of how Tower is improving service levels, according to Callander.

“We are helping advisers understand the changes to our policies and the implementation of these changes, as we found many people were not aware of changes in conditions in policies,” he said.

Zurich has also been promoting the changes to the conditions in its policies to advisers, according to head of life risk Andrew McKee.

“One the key features has been the loss of income definition in our income protection product,” he said.

“We now have a definition that if the loss of income is due to sickness or injury we will pay rather than base the loss on whether the client can perform any duties.”

McKee said because there are no other definitions bought into the claim, it is easier for the client and adviser to see whether to make a claim.

“It is making our policies clearer and more understandable, which is what everybody wants,” he said.

“It is also saving time on defining what a duty is and how much income would be lost by not being able to perform some duties.”

Another area of improvement from Zurich is partial benefits from day one of the end of the waiting period.

McKee said, at the end of the waiting period, the client doesn’t have to be totally disabled to receive payments.

“Providing they have suffered loss of income, we will then pay a benefit as long as they are earning less than 80 per cent of their pre-disability income,” he said.

“It is about creating flexibility in the policy to bring conditions that the client wants, which brings benefits to them, the advisers and us.”

Asteron senior product manager Andrew Casperson said the company was continually enhancing the product to meet changing conditions on the workplace.

“Our income protection product is flexible so it can be tailored for different occupations,’ he said.

“For example, we allow partial return to work without losing benefits.

“This is especially useful for self-employed people who may want to go back to work for a couple of hours a week, just to check on how things are going.”

Casperson said the key to income protection today was providing flexibility to meet clients’ demands.

Another example was a pregnancy premium waiver, where Asteron waives premiums for six months during maternity leave.

“This was based on customer feedback and is part of our move to cover more than just the main breadwinner of the family,” he said.

“We are also recognising people who stay with us or take out additional products for the family by giving them premium discounts of up to 25 per cent.”