Improving claims processes and an early contender for the biggest launch of the year
So much coverage and excitement in the industry over the launch of Vitality’s SIC products. The online launch from Vitality was excellent, and certainly what we have come to expect from them.
What does the launch mean to Advisers? More simplicity essentially. Vitality will now be offering three distinct Serious Illness propositions designed to compete in different areas of the market.
Adam Higgs, Head of Product at Protection Guru has provided a full review of the new proposition here – A huge SIC launch from Vitality – will it convert the doubters? – Protection Guru
And here is Matt Chapman’s review on LinkedIn providing a video summary of the changes Vitality launch from Matt Chapman
Overall, the changes are extremely positive. The changes to children’s SIC, dementia and frailcare cover make a great deal of sense, and again offering simplified options for Advisers. And more good news with regard to Vitality’s Income Protection proposition which has also been simplified with the best of the three products that were previously offered brought into one along side a more structured earlier intervention offering. See the full details and what Adam thought of the changes here.
The week started with an incredible Protection Forum. As anticipated, a highly energetic debate took place on how far does the industry still need to go when it comes to protection claims processes.
We heard from Zoe Priselac – Way More Solutions Ltd, Adam Kaplan – Pendragon Protect and Emma Thomson – SBG of their experiences with good and bad claims experiences, together with a view from Emma on PDG initiatives. Geoff Butcher from Zurich kindly contributed on their approach and how they are improving client experiences.
Adam Higgs shared with the forum the Insurer SLAs that Protection Guru had requested, and again was met with interest and debate.
In summary, the industry has a great deal to accelerate the claims process, share experiences of successful claims made and importantly, exposure to all types of claims not just serious illnesses, to enable consumer confidence and trust of investing into such plans in the first instance.
Elsewhere on Protection Guru, on Monday we shared a run down of British Friendly’s income protection proposition in terms of their USPs and how they can cater for clients in many different scenarios.
On Tuesday we interrogated which insurers can provide cover to the children of a critical illness policyholder so that they can remain covered beyond the child cover provided within the policy. On Wednesday we continued the child theme by considering which critical illness plans support parents when their child is hospitalised.
To wrap up the week, we did a run down of all the Vitality launches so far this year. It is fair to say that Vitality have had a bus start to the year with a new D2C proposition alongside the two product launches last Thursday.
That’s it from me, have a fantastic week!
