Underwriting transparency and fairness – What do advisers really think?

“Underwriting has changed massively over the last couple of years. There are some insurers that are falling behind, but most of the time we find there are some insurers out there that are great at it. They want to listen to the additional medical information.

It really helps us when we’ve got a case manager and we actually have a dedicated underwriter who we work with and communicate with to get the best outcome for the clients. And so the underwriting side, I think, has changed massively in regard to treating everyone individually. They’re not treating it as a tick box but it’s our job as an adviser to get that information on an application and send that over then to the underwriter. Because, you know, as I said in the chat, they’re not mind readers. They can only go off what we enter into that system.”

“I’ve had clients where they’ve had to phone the underwriter just to get information that the insurer is not willing to share with me. And it kind of is frustrating. If insurers could build that into apps so that we’re not having to go off maybe and get explicit letters drafted by clients after the event, I think that would streamline that process. I mean, as a broker, clients look to me and they want me to solve these problems for them and I’m always happy for me to find out whatever’s needed to be known. But I think maybe there’s another step there around insurers streamlining that process maybe as part of the application process.

In the same way that they give authority for GDPR, they give authority for any findings or decisions detailed to be shared with their broker so that we can then, if need be, challenge whatever needs to be done.”

“Not being able to talk to underwriters is very frustrating when you can just have a simple conversation with them and get that sorted. Lee did steal my piece that I was going to talk about, about having something on the application that says that the client is happy for us to discuss their underwriting decisions.”

“Underwriting has come a long way and it’s far better than it was even 2 or 3 years ago from COVID. But there’s definitely an area of improvement when it comes to slightly adverse decisions for little things that weren’t disclosed on the application, if that makes any sense.”

“I like the pre-sales underwriting tools, however, I don’t know if I’m the only advisor in the country that tends to very rarely get a straightforward case … I suppose medical science improving the way it is, we are going to see more and more conditions discovered. We’re going to see people suffering from more things. So I love the pre-sales underwriting tools. I think they can be quite quick, but we do still need to be able to have the confidence to pick up the phone and say, look, this is quite complex.”

“I don’t know if everybody else knows and I don’t, but I’m guessing that when you assess a risk, it’s not just necessarily based on the client’s condition, it’s maybe the number of claims you’ve had for that condition and maybe government data or statistics. But I often find that when a client says, ‘well, why am I being excluded for mental health conditions when actually it was last year, I immediately sought help. I went for some counselling and I’m now tickety-boo.’ and I find that with a lot of clients, if they’ve got existing conditions.”

“So I’d love to know where the statistics are in terms of what you class as high risk. Is it just your own personal insurers experience through claims or, you know, or is it ‘well, you’ve had this, so we’re going to exclude it’, because I have had a client actually say to me that their GP said, ‘Look, do you want me to put this on your record? Because if I say you’ve had a mental health issue, you might struggle to get life insurance’. And that’s one GP that’s actually said that! And I wonder, are these conversations being had? Are people not going for help because they’re thinking, ‘if I do, it could affect me getting insurance?’. And I saw something recently written where I think a mental health society has approached the FCA to say, ‘Look, can we just get a little bit more common sense behind this?’. So maybe just some clarity on you know, where we stand with that also. “

“GP Reports are quite interesting because more and more clients have access now to GP reports online through the NHS app and that’s something that’s come out since COVID and I know a lot of my clients where I’m saying to them, Look, you need to disclose everything… And I’m sort of saying, ‘Why don’t you go and get a copy of your GP report’ and I’m letting them know that they can do that.”

“I think across all providers you should have the three options to email, call, or use a tool. The ones where you can’t speak to an underwriter does make it really difficult because sometimes things are quite complicated. Personally, I think it’s quicker to send out an email to everybody, but if it’s something more complicated, then you do need to speak to an underwriter. And then when it comes to the application, being able to freehand answers is really useful. And you can send an email afterwards if you need to add further information. But the applications where there is that option to freehand answers are really helpful, but they can be ambiguous sometimes and the client isn’t always sure whether something needs to be disclosed or not. So if questions could be less ambiguous that would be great. I do find some of the insurers in their applications may repeat the same questions sometimes when it isn’t necessary, particularly around mental health.”

“In terms of the GP report process, I do think that it must improve. If providers will accept consultant letters, they’ll have a conversation with the client over the phone. That’s really helpful instead of having to go for the GP. But we do find that we constantly have to chase GP’s. I’ve had situations where providers are saying ‘well we’ve been chasing them every week’, but actually the GP hasn’t received the request.”

“I had a situation where a client was given a mental health exclusion because she went to the GP as she was stressed and struggling sleeping before her wedding day. So she was given a mental health exclusion and obviously I went back and pushed back on that and it was removed. But again, this is why it’s important to be able to speak to underwriters and have people look at cases and apply some sort of common sense.”