13th March 2009
- Once & Done Underwriting extended to £3m of cover on Group Life
- Tele-underwriting enables swift, no fuss form completion
- AEL for Group Critical Illness increased to £500,000
Building on its unique ability to practically apply its expertise for the benefit of its customers, Unum is extending its ground-breaking medical underwriting approach, introduced last June, to its entire Group Risk product range.
With scheme members increasingly pressed for time in today’s challenging business environment, Unum’s streamlined process enables high earners to get cover in place quickly and easily, often with one phone call: Group Life members with benefits up to £3m will benefit from ‘Once & Done’ underwriting, the benefit being that once underwritten there will be no further requests for medical forms or evidence unless their benefits exceed £3m. In addition, as with Unum’s GIP underwriting they are also aiming to achieve a goal of 90% of cases processed without any additional medical evidence.
The Automatic Entry Level for Critical Illness has also increased to the maximum benefit level of £500,000, meaning that medical underwriting will never be required.
“Our philosophy is based on a broad and deep understanding of human behaviour and lifestyle management and this, coupled with almost four decades of experience, means we can confidently lead the way and challenge traditional approaches for the benefit of our customers,” comments Andrew Potterton, Chief Medical Underwriter at Unum and the engineer behind the innovation.
“We believe it’s important to make sure that our customers benefit across the piece, helping them approach Group Risk holistically,” confirms Susan Ring, Unum CEO. “This move is further evidence of our commitment to raising industry standards, taking action to help make cover available and accessible to more people than ever before.”
As well as these product additions, the original five tenets of Unum’s underwriting philosophy remain, including:
- cover for employees who have had heart attack, cancer and diabetes
- cover in place within a week – with 95% of decisions made within 5 days of receipt
- bespoke tele-underwriting to enable fast-track form completion for high earners
- future increases in cover without further medical underwriting, even for adverse risks
“We are working to help advisers take the Group Risk story to a wider market with confidence,” adds Susan Ring. “To create that confidence, it’s important to make it as easy as possible to do business with us: this enhancement sees us apply a pragmatic and people-focused solution to what has often created a significant barrier to sale in the past.”
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