The new protection proposition from Guardian comes with the promise ‘Life. Made Better.’ But does it stack up?
One of the biggest challenges for the protection market right now is that despite publishing robust data for many years showing that almost all claims are paid, most customers, and some advisers, still aren’t convinced.
Critical illness (CI) cover often comes under scrutiny for being too complex and Guardian has tried to address this by providing clearer, broader definitions with pay-outs that happen when a medical consultant confirms the illness. If Guardian delivers on this promise, it will be great news for the protection market and, more importantly, for policyholders.
Guardian has focused on providing a high-quality proposition with many features that broaden the coverage, while allowing policyholders to alter their cover as circumstances change and upgrade as Guardian develops new ideas. Plus, it has looked at the issues around placing policies into trust.
Overall, no general exclusions are applied. Instead, they are applied on a case-by-case basis. And instead of long medico-legal definitions for stroke, heart attack and multiple sclerosis, Guardian pays out if a UK consultant says that event has occurred.
The cancer definition includes all malignant skin cancers – with no exceptions. Terminal illness benefit applies to the normal 12-month rule, but also pays out on diagnosis of stage-four cancer, motor neurone disease, Parkinson-plus syndromes and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, regardless of life expectancy.
Guardian has chosen not to offer joint life – first event cover, instead favouring single life cover, which provides better coverage overall and is something many advisers have been advocating for a long time.
A multi-cover discount applies, and every customer automatically gets premium waiver benefit at no extra cost – and with just a one-month deferred period.
And there’s a specialist claims service too, plus a 24-hour GP service and second medical opinions. Children’s CI cover is a separate add-on benefit (so those without children do not pay for cover they do not need) which can be from £10,000 to £100,000 and added or removed at any time.
The products show a real attention to detail and there is evidence of both a different approach and one that makes things better for advisers and customers.
As Guardian told us recently, ambiguous policy wordings protect the insurer, while crystal clear wordings, with no wriggle room, protect the customer. We’ll have to see how the pricing competes and how customers react to its bold moves, but our instinct is very positive indeed.
Emma Thomson is head of customer care at LifeSearch
