“Protection is a force for good in society.”
Of course, life, illness and disability is also a very emotive area so be kind, compassionate and a good listener, says Burgess. “People can take out insurance by themselves online. They come to us because they need help. Our primary job is to give great advice, but sometimes we must also serve as a support system, therapist and confidant.”
What needs to change?
If our experts could improve one aspect of protection underwriting, what would it be?
Digitising the process comes top of the wish-list for most of our commentators; to help make it super easy to underwrite new customers and help get them the insurance they need.
Croft would like to see the NHS digitised so that insurers can receive medical information more quickly. The same goes for Banks, who would like to see more adoption of e-records by GPs.
Digitisation is top for Lyons too, who adds: “Anything you can do to put an underwritten price in front of a customer at the moment of truth will make a difference.”
However, Burgess cautions against too much automation within the underwriting process: “Online underwriting tools can help for simpler disclosures but sometimes you need to speak to a human.”
He would like to see easier access to underwriting departments. “Hold times can be horrific. 20 minutes on hold and then 5-10 minutes to go through the disclosures is very time consuming. Doing that with multiple insurers is not an ideal use of your time.”
Meanwhile, Knowles would like to see the industry looking for more reasons to cover people, rather than reasons not to. For example, where someone lives with a lifelong health condition, he’d like to see the industry looking at how the individual has adjusted their life and work to help manage that condition. “We could then make greater use of loadings, exclusions, premium reviews and other methods to mitigate risk to offer cover to more people.”
Similarly, Yates would like to see more protection insurers thinking more innovatively about underwriting; allowing protection to adapt with individual circumstances and needs. “At present, underwriting is almost exclusively a ‘one and done’ process; a snapshot of a client’s needs, health and circumstances at a moment in time. But, as we all know, life isn’t linear, it’s ever changing.”
He would also like to see more protection insurers developing improved ongoing engagement with advisers and their clients; engagement that “goes far further than the current limited use of Guaranteed Insurability Options [GIOs].”
“Whilst there were tech barriers which made this kind of forward underwriting impossible, this is no longer the case,” he adds.
Allen would love it if insurers would give better explanations for clients as to why decisions have been made that are non-standard.
