'If protection insurers can't meet claims efficiently then empathy means little'

It is a charge that is often thrown at me (along with the bread rolls) when I attend financial adviser shindigs, and of course I put up my hands and admit: 'Guilty as charged'.

Yes, much to the annoyance of my mother, cynic is my middle name – hence, Jeffrey Cynic Prestridge (JCP) rather than Jeffrey John Prestridge (JJP).

Occasionally, when the planets are aligned, I shift out of cynical mode and praise a company for some good deed or initiative. Yet invariably, it comes back to haunt me, leaving me with egg on my face.

It happened a few days ago when I heaped praise on insurance giant Zurich UK for introducing empathy training for staff who deal with customers making a claim on a financial protection product.

When I read the press release, published to coincide with national customer service week, it seemed like a rather good initiative. Claimants, often with serious illnesses, deserve all the empathy in the world.

Pete Sanderson, Zurich’s protection big cheese, said all the right words. "When someone is making a claim, it is most likely that they’re at their most vulnerable," he explained.

"It may have been they’ve just been diagnosed with a critical illness or even lost a loved one. We know this can be a stressful time, so it’s important that we’re there for them at their time of need, both emotionally and practically."

I described Zurich’s focus on empathy as "splendid" and said it should be a given, not just in the financial protection arena but right across the financial services industry.

It is when he started telling me about his personal dealings with Zurich that I wished I had kept on my cynical hat.

Yet my praise did not go down well with everyone. Some accused me of kowtowing – and rightly so. In other words, throwing away my cynical cloak and falling for the company line. Something journalists are not meant to do.

One of the loudest critics to come out of the woodwork spitting like a cobra was John Helfgott, a partner of Watford-based financial planning company Highwood. Its offices are a stone’s throw away from Vicarage Road, home of Watford Football Club.

Helfgott has worked in financial services most of his adult life and advises clients with investible wealth of at least £250,000. Now 65, he’s seen it all, the good and the bad.

From a business perspective, he is rather unimpressed with the quality of service currently provided by many product providers, resulting (for example) in intolerable delays getting clients’ pensions transferred. Staff shortages are to blame, he says, as is a lack of technical know-how.

But it is when he started telling me about his personal dealings with Zurich that I wished I had kept on my cynical hat.

In early September, Helfgott – an accomplished runner and a minimum 12,000 a day steps person – was diagnosed with bladder cancer. For a while, he had noticed blood in his urine, but all the doctors he saw reassured him that there was nothing untoward.

Sadly, a scan proved otherwise, resulting in an operation to remove the tumour. He is now on a five-year treatment programme, which (touch wood) will ensure the cancer does not return.

Like all good financial planners, Helfgott is a big believer in the products he recommends to clients, and practices what he preaches. As a result, he has a critical illness policy just in case something like bladder cancer came along to disrupt his life. It did.

The policy is with Zurich and he took it out when he worked for Allied Dunbar. Allied Crowbar, as it was known in its prime, was bought from BAT Industries by Zurich.

Helfgott says empathy is all well and good, but it counts for nothing if claims aren’t processed in a timely fashion.

In his case, he was initially told his claim, made in September, would be looked at within 35 working days (seven weeks). Then, he was informed that it would take around 38 working days (nearly eight weeks) from October 12 to review "new information" sent from the hospital where he had the cancer removed.

Claimants, often with serious illnesses, deserve all the empathy in the world.

"Unfortunately, due to an unprecedented high volume of claims, we’re taking longer to review new information as quickly as we’d like," Zurich told Helfgott. It added: "We do realise that this is a very stressful time for you and your family – and we’re very sorry for this delay."

It means that Helfgott will be lucky to get his claim met in time for Christmas.

"Protection insurance is meant to give you a financial comfort blanket at a time of great stress," Helfgott told me a few days ago. "Mine hasn’t arrived yet. I appreciate empathy, but I would rather have my claim dealt with efficiently and in a prompt manner."

It’s a view shared by Alan Lakey of CI Expert. He says: "If an insurer can’t get its claims handling right at a time of great anxiety for the customer, it has failed them."

Too right. Efficiency over empathy. Zurich, buck your ideas up (I feel better for saying that).

JCP, over and out.

Jeff Prestridge is group wealth & personal finance editor of DMGT