ProtectionFeb 4 2016

British Friendly launches auto acceptance system

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British Friendly launches auto acceptance system

British Friendly has launched a new auto acceptance system for income protection, allowing advisers to receive immediate acceptance when their clients apply online.

This is applied using the firm’s intelligent underwriting system, which tracks the answers entered to decide whether the applicant could be accepted on standard terms.

Iain Clark, marketing and distribution director at British Friendly, said this follows the unveiling last month of a suite of claims information, including 10-year paid claims statistics, a claims landing page, claims video and case study booklet for advisers.

“This is one of the first steps in our ongoing upgrades to product and processes to simplify the way that advisers discuss income protection with their clients.”

At the start of the year, the insurer became the first in the industry to publish claims statistics for the whole of 2015, confirming it paid 97.8 per cent of income protection claims; an increase on the 96.7 per cent of all income protection claims paid in 2014.

In November, British Friendly’s new marketing and distribution director Iain Clark told Financial Adviser that it had plans to push forward various innovations in 2016.

“I like to think that we are a speedboat not a tanker and this helps us to go to market more quickly, but there is a lot of conformity in the market place,” he stated at the time.

Tom Conner, director at Drewberry Insurance, commented that income protection should be the first choice product for working people in most cases.

“We know brokers don’t sell enough of it and this innovation by British Friendly should make the whole sales process much easier and more convenient.”

peter.walker@ft.com