What were the major product updates and developments from the last 2 months?
News article
Publication date:
13 May 2022
Last updated:
18 December 2023
Author(s):
Protection Guru
With 2022 seemingly flying by, we’ve continued to see lots of new product updates and changes announced by insurers.
After what was a relatively slow couple of years in terms of product development and innovation, understandably so during the pandemic, the industry has certainly kept us busy over the last few months.
As ever, we aim to bring you the most detailed adviser-focused analysis, and were appropriate, coupled with a comparative assessment across the broader market. In this round-up we bring you all of our product update coverage from March and April.
NEW ZURICH ONLINE BUSINESS PROTECTION TRUST FOR SHAREHOLDER PROTECTION AND PARTNERSHIP KEY PERSON INSURANCE
At the beginning of March Zurich unveiled an improvement to their business protection trusts, by now offering a complete online trust journey for those arranging business protection insurance. This followed a change earlier in the year, when their relevant life trust was made fully digital. In this insight we examined what the changes mean and provided details of how to complete the online trust.
LEGAL & GENERAL MAKE IMPROVEMENTS TO RELEVANT LIFE PLAN AND GUARANTEED INCREASE OPTIONS
Continuing with the theme of business protection and hot on the heels of a similar announcement from AIG in February, Legal & General made changes to their relevant life plan in March, as well as some improvements to their overall guaranteed increase options. The key headline was that client switching their relevant life plan to a personal policy would no longer lose the terminal illness benefit. Our insight provides all the details.
ROYAL LONDON CRITICAL ILLNESS IMPROVEMENTS
With 2020 and 2021 having been relatively quiet years for critical illness updates, mostly because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2022 so far we’ve seen a number of new products and improvements/changes unveiled by insurers. In mid-March Royal London announced their latest updates, which we gave a full review of.
AIG CHILDREN’S CRITICAL ILLNESS CHANGES
Another critical illness update, this time a change from AIG and in relation solely to their children’s cover. The change applied to the way they calculate the sum-assured for their children’s cover, as well as the maximum pay-out available. This is an important insight for advisers who are recommending their products and wish ti know how the children’s cover works.
AIG MAKE CHANGES TO RELEVANT LIFE CONTINUATION OPTION
With life, critical illness and general additional support benefits having been the products or features where we’ve seen most of the updates and improvements recently, income protection has taken a bit of a back seat. Insurers are still working on their IP products though and in April British Friendly made some changs to their maximum benefit calculations, which we covered in this insight.
ROYAL LONDON EXTEND UNDERWRITE LATER
It’s been a busy year for Royal London, with changes and improvements to their Helping Hand Benefits, the critical illness cover highlighted above and now their Underwrite Later feature. This is an underwriting option we particularly like and whilst it’s not exclusive to Royal London, we were pleased to see them extend it to personal life insurance. Read our insight for the full details.
This document is believed to be accurate but is not intended as a basis of knowledge upon which advice can be given. Neither the author (personal or corporate), the CII group, local institute or Society, or any of the officers or employees of those organisations accept any responsibility for any loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the data or opinions included in this material. Opinions expressed are those of the author or authors and not necessarily those of the CII group, local institutes, or Societies.
