Canada Life is offering a group life assurance product to smaller companies, dubbed Simply Class, in anticipation of auto-enrolment reaching organisations with fewer than 50 employees.
Premiums under the Simply Class group life assurance programme are allowable as a business expense and, as the plan is set up under a master trust, this maximises tax benefits available to everyone who is insured under the policy.
The process does not require medical underwriting and is supported by a 24-hour bereavement and probate helpline service. Premium rates are guaranteed for three years.
For those with smaller companies as clients, advisers are also offered an online tool that will allow them to upload the client’s data into Canada Life’s website which will generate quotes on four levels of cover and assess risk. The tool aims to take less than five minutes for the adviser to generate all the necessary data.
The generated options are broken down by a £25,000 benefit, £50,000 benefit, one times salary and double salary. Cover is available from £480 per year with flexible payment options, and the average cost to the employee per year ranges from £26 to £93, depending on which level of cover is chosen.
Up to £5m of benefit can be payable if a single event happens. This is available in the majority of postcodes, but cover is always in place once the scheme is established.
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The low-cost group life assurance option is designed specifically for companies with fewer than 50 employees, Canada Life hopes to fill that gap with Simply Class.
The group’s research team met with advisers and assessed thoughts on the product at various stages. In the first stage, 70 per cent were positive about recommending it after reading the Simply Class description. This increased to 80 per cent after a product discussion, and after being explained details regarding quotations and tax benefits, it was 100 per cent.
Paul Avis, marketing director at Canada Life calls the intermediary route offered as “simple, sales-oriented, and remunerative”, and assured that the charge cap and RDR issues would not be a problem as only three- year commission is online.
The product is only available for new-to-market schemes. Canada Life is next planning on expanding specialised coverage to micro businesses (between two and nine employees) in early 2016.
