Protection Forum (November 2025) – Underwriting flexibility – Part One

“There’s not a lot underwriters are doing right. The turnaround times aren’t great. But you know, there are changes afoot which I think are going to be positive, but at the moment, yeah, it all seems to be doom and gloom unfortunately.”

“I agree with everything that everyone’s said. There’s a lot that does need to be changed in terms of attitude towards the current climate. Everything’s now very historic. Certainly a lot of them are pre-COVID. I don’t think anything has really changed since COVID and there’s not been a lot of flexibility in the way that they look at things.”

“There needs to be a whole shake-up with underwriting ethos and philosophies. There are things that people have that won’t necessarily lead to death, but they’re still causing issues with underwriting, and it just needs to be reviewed.”

“I think being able to verify the income for the amount that they’re paying for would put a better spin on it for customers. Clients would then be in a stronger position, because I mean, I deal with mortgages as well as protection, so I’ve already got their payslips – uploading the income verification is the next step.”

“Just having that as a blanket cover across all insurers would benefit clients so much more because then they can guarantee what they’re paying for is what they’ll get paid out.”

“The friendly societies are on the other end of the spectrum – they’re not restricted by reinsurers, so they’re able to make their own underwriting decisions. You’re able to push back a lot more on them, and the experience we’ve had is that some of the smaller friendly societies really use that as a USP, encouraging you to challenge decline decisions, ratings and exclusions.”

“One pain point I have, and I’m a big advocate for changing it, is exclusions on life insurance. The industry has done incredibly well to be adjustable for IP, for critical illness and PMI, but not for life insurance.”

“It frustrates me that a client can suffer with a mental health disclosure, maybe a suicide attempt or suicidal thoughts, and they’re not able to get life insurance, but in some cases they could get income protection because it would just have a mental health exclusion.”

“Occupation classes and occupation disclosures are another area that need work. It’s really important to make sure everything disclosed is as accurate as possible, but we do need to be better at it. It’s complex to standardise, but essential.”

“I think understanding what the client actually does in their role should be prioritised over the job title, because it gives more clarity and should help with underwriting. But that should come hand in hand with not penalising clients unnecessarily.”

“We’re seeing some positive adaptations in process. For customers with complex medical queries or high net worth clients with large sums assured, it’s about navigating the underwriting process to make it slicker, so we’re not getting bogged down with targeted reports and nurse screenings.”

“The positive shift towards transparency has also been encouraging. Even though there are delays, many providers are communicating with customers about how long something’s going to take, where they are in the process, and ensuring customers are informed even if it takes longer than expected.”

“There’s a lack of consistency across the market in terms of touchpoints with advisers and clients. Seventy per cent of the emails and calls coming to us at the moment are about problems advisers are having – they can’t get hold of underwriting teams, and that inconsistency is a real pain point.”

“I think policies currently in force are too rigid. We don’t have enough flexibility in the market in terms of following a customer’s lifestyle through the life of the policy. Providers need to check in with customers more regularly, not just leave it to advisers to review.”

“A lot of providers are now offering us a facility to actually talk to the underwriters directly regarding a client, which has been really useful. Getting instant underwriting decisions creates efficiency and transparency for the customer.”

“The lack of clarity on turnaround times leads to client disengagement and frustration. When everything goes to underwriting and you can’t give them any clear timeline, it reflects badly on us as an industry and on the adviser who’s trying to help the client.”

“The ability to reassess underwriting in this day and age is something that needs addressing. We should be able to go back to an insurer and say, I was overweight and smoking, and now I’m fit and active – but there’s no option to do that.”

“The difference between what you disclose versus what’s actually a diagnosed condition could do with cleaning up. For example, if someone discloses that they’ve seen someone for mental health support, they get penalised for it, whereas if they go to the gym for a bad back, they don’t.”