In our January Protection Forum session, a panel of experienced advisers and industry specialists turned their attention to one of the most challenging areas of the advice journey — pre-sales underwriting.
Joining the discussion were:
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Shirley Gooden, Specialist Protection Adviser – Protect My Hive
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Michael Chapman, Head of Protection & General Insurance – Dynamo
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Toby Corden, Protection Co-ordinator – L&C Mortgages
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Dan Hill, Protection Adviser – P10 Financial Group
The panel explored how pre-sales underwriting is evolving in practice, where it continues to fall short, and the impact this has on advisers, insurers and, ultimately, consumers.
The first half of the discussion revealed widespread concern around underwriting delays and medical referrals, with advisers highlighting the increasing difficulty of managing client expectations during prolonged decision timelines. While pre-sales tools and digital underwriting platforms are helping to streamline straightforward cases, speakers noted that complex cases often remain poorly served, with outcomes at application stage sometimes diverging from initial pre-sales indications.
Listen to the full session recording and explore the highlights below to hear how advisers and industry leaders are calling for a more responsive, transparent and human approach to underwriting.
Click the audio playback below to listen to the full session.
“The biggest change that’s probably happened over the last year, 18 months has seemingly been this incredibly long process where cases get submitted for further underwriting.”
“There’s been the usual long-standing issues where waiting for GP reports, but now the problem is at the insurer’s end where underwriting times are just being compounded for a variety of reasons.”
“I’ve had cases where they’ve told me they’ve received all the evidence they’ve requested for a complex case and it’s going to take 35 working days for me to get a response.”
“There are so many challenges we have at the very beginning of the funnel to even get clients into buying protection, explaining it and submitting it.”
“After potentially months of delays, you’re hoping you’ve held their hands sufficiently to still be able to proceed with the final outcome.”
Full session audio
“We use a traffic-light system which helps signpost to advisers what those timescales look like.”
“Where we’re seeing large variation in insurer turnaround times, it becomes more important that we’re highlighting that information.”
“Mortgage lenders tend to demonstrate turnaround times openly on their portals, and that helps set expectations for customers.”
“If we’ve got an enquiry where it’s suitable for pre-sales underwriting and you can get the outcome, that reduces workload for the insurer.”
“The best pre-sales tools are the ones that link directly into the underwriting engine and actually give you a decision.”
