Protection insurance support benefits – 5 things you should read
With the announcement this week from Legal & General of their new Umbrella Benefits – Fracture Cover and Private Diagnostics – the spotlight is once again on the support benefits included on protection policies. Private Diagnostics is a unique new benefit, that in some ways makes the protection products it can be included with a hybrid of protection and health insurance. Support benefits are nothing new though and insurers have included various additional services, either as optional add-on’s or as part of the core contract, for a number of years now. As we’ve repeatedly said, these benefits are increasingly an integral aspect of the cover and add significant extra value. In this ‘5 things you should read’, we’ve pulled together some of the recent insights we’ve written on this subject, which describe and compare some of these benefits.
Legal & General Unveil new unique support benefit
The scope and variety of support benefits has increased considerably in the least few years, with insurers offering everything from preventative services such as health screenings or nutritional advice, through to extra financial assistance for less serious conditions such as fracture cover. As these benefits are gradually expanded and improved upon, we see protection insurance becoming more of a hybrid product. In this insight we looked at the Legal & General announcement of two major additions which they will provide within their new Umbrella Benefits: Fracture Cover and Private Diagnostics Cover.
how does legal & general’s new Fracture cover compare?
A broken bone may seem relatively minor in the grand schemes of things, particularly if an adviser and their client are discussing long-term illness or major medical conditions as part of an Income Protection or Critical Illness recommendation. However the financial consequences of suffering a fracture could be serious for many clients, especially if they’re forced to take time off work to recover. To provide financial help in this kind of situation, a number of insurers offer fracture cover as an added benefit to their protection products, to sit alongside the core cover. In this insight we compared Legal & General’s latest offering with other fracture cover options on the market and look at who comes out strongest.
What mental health support do protection providers offer?
People have historically been reluctant to discuss their mental health but things have changed in recent years. Even before the pandemic – which has bought the holistic concept of ‘wellbeing’ into the mainstream – public figures as diverse as Prince Harry and Tommy Mallet from The Only Way is Essex were talking about their mental health struggles in an effort to remove the perceived stigma. Within the protection world, mental health is a common reason to claim on income protection policies, so it makes sense for insurers to include some form of mental health support among their added value benefits. In this insight we looked at what services are offered and how insurers are going about this.
health checks support benefit – how providers compare
Some income protection insurers provide ‘health MOTs’ as part of their value-added services. As we all know, prevention is better than cure. If risk factors or the early signs of a condition can be spotted, it benefits everyone. Early detection means there is a higher chance of treating a health issue effectively, which could prevent it turning into a bigger problem that leads to a claim and perhaps even save lives. In this insight we looked at which insurers offer ‘health MOT’ services and the different forms these can take.
Guardian to provide free virtual gp service to advisers
During our recent June Protection Forum we suggested that providers can help raise more awareness of these benefits, by in some cases giving access to advisers. The logic being that if advisers have utilised the services themselves in their own personal life, they’ll be more likely to highlight them to their client and can offer a first hand perspective on how useful they are. We are pleased to see that Guardian have today announced such an initiative, offering full access to their GP 24/7 benefit for advisers, for a period of 6 months. In this insight we looked in more detail at Guardian’s service and how it compares to the rest of the market.
