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Tele-interviewing is conquering the non-disclosure problem, MorganAsh has claimed as it announces details of its one-day event in September.

Andrew Gething, managing director for MorganAsh, said there was growing evidence tele-underwriting was tackling both fraud and non-disclosure in the insurance world.

He said: "At the seminar delegates will learn about tele-interviewing and underwriting which is now becoming commonplace in the UK, Ireland and is growing in Germany and other European countries.

"Details on particular aspects of protection including non-disclosure, fraud detection and other topical issues will be discussed."

He added said companies like NFU Mutual, Axa, Royal Liver and Irish Life were reporting increasing volumes and real competitive advantage by using tele-interviewing and underwriting.

The one-day event is being held at the Mercure Holland Hotel and Spa in Bristol on 16 September.

Matt Morris, policy adviser for protection specialists LifeSearch, said that tele-underwriting was an important method to combat non-disclosure. He said: "Axa produced some figures which showed how effective tele-underwriting has been to reduce non-disclosure. Rather than people sitting at home and filling in a form and getting things wrong, they have someone on the phone with them who is dedicated and trained in taking people through questions.

"The interviewer can take them through questions in a language they understand."

Full tele-underwriting resulted in a 1.23 per cent non-disclosure figure according to research by Axa. By comparison, electronic applications had 3.48 per cent and paper applications 5.78 per cent non-disclosure figures.