ProtectionApr 14 2016

LV pays more than £1m a week in protection claims

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LV pays more than £1m a week in protection claims

LV has paid out 96 per cent of all new individual protection claims, totalling £56m, in 2015, making average weekly pay-outs over £1m.

The company, which released the pay-out figures to help advisers show the value of protection to clients, paid 100 per cent of 50 plus claims and unemployment claims.

It also paid 99 per cent of terminal illness claims, 97 per cent of death claims, 92 per cent of income protection claims and 91 per cent of critical illness claims.

Investments in technology have helped simplify and speed up the claims process, according to the company, allowing it to settle more than 70 per cent of 50 plus claims over the telephone.

Advisers can use this information to demonstrate the real benefits of these products to clients. Myles Rix

LV has plans to use digital and smartphone technology to allow customers to provide medical evidence and exchange scanned documents and images.

Myles Rix, managing director of protection at LV, said: “Protection policies offer a financial safety net to households at an extremely difficult time but we know that some consumers worry that claiming will be a hard process.

“We are releasing these numbers to make it clear that in the overwhelming majority of cases we pay out, and so advisers can use this information to demonstrate the real benefits of these products to their clients.”

Steve Danson, chartered financial planner at Chorley-based Banks Wealth Management, said: “It’s really good to get good news out there to improve the public’s perception of claims being paid out quickly.

“Clients worry that if they take out critical illness or income protection, in the event of a claim the insurance company will do what it can from the small print to avoid paying, but this allays those figures.”