For many years the Association of British Insurers minimum Critical Illness definitions have been becoming increasingly complex. So much so that this has become a recurring theme in our weekly conversations with the chair of Protection Guru’s independent medical panel. During a recent call we decided it was time to try and bring some clarity to the situation so last week our doctors looked at Why Are Cancer Definitions in Critical Illness Policies So Complex Now? – Part One, with Part Two being published later today. We hope this makes a difficult subject easier for advisers to explain to their clients.
Late news on Friday, and I mean late, it was embargoed by the FCA until 10:30PM, was that the FCA has highlighted bank behaviour on Bereavement and Power of Attorney policies. Having personally had some involvement with helping someone with a Critical Illness claim where the same institution also held a mortgage on the dependent’s property, I can say these situations are very difficult. In fairness to the bank involved, when alerted at a senior level they were really helpful, but conflicting obligations and regulations do make this a challenge. In this case I think the regulator may want to look at how they can create special rules that will enable institutions to provide more support. In this context it is also worth reading our analysis last week on What are the benefits of Beneficiary Nomination?
We had a couple of major awareness days least week, Monday being World Health Day 2025 – Maternal and Infant Health, particularly focusing on healthy beginnings and hopeful futures. Jason Colman provided a valuable look at this and particularly how Critical Illness cover supports families and indeed links into six other recent articles on our site.
Also Friday was World Parkinson’s day so we looked at how Critical Illness plans cover the condition . As we had spent so much time considering Critical Illness cover last week it was a good opportunity to revisit How to evaluate the quality of existing Critical Illness plans in under five minutes.
Continuing on the technical side of analysis we also looked at What are the different Protection Premium types of premiums such as guaranteed, renewable and age costed and who are they suited to?
One contract is often referred to as the hidden gem of the protection market, it is of course Family Income Benefit. That said when people do claim, insurers report that clients frequently commute the ongoing benefits to a lump sum. Is that the right thing to do? Matt Chapman’s analysis Family Income Benefit: Why you don’t need a lump sum shares the case for not doing so.
We had one study on things we like last week and that was for How Zurich’s Income Protection Maximum Benefit Guarantee Can Help Safeguard Against Over Insurance. This is a valuable evolution of cover and one several other insurers would do well to learn from.
Over on our AdviserSoftware.com site it is rare for us to do an event for platforms, insurers, asset managers, discretionary fund managers and technology companies but that is exactly what we are doing at 4pm on 30th April. The session will explore:
Why the smart money in fintech is now going into WealthTech
Clicking on the link above will give access to free tickets.
Last week we also shared new analysis from:
One Mortgage-system – a comprehensive mortgage-practice-management-systems supplier
Source – a general insurance quotation and new business processing service
4admin – an AI based Letter of Authority service
Posterity – an AI based compliance automation and administration system
It is a short week this week so I hope everyone has a great time in the sunshine and that lots of Bunnies are on their way to you if you choose to celebrate the forthcoming festival or not.
