There are a range of solutions in the protection industry that can provide indicative underwriting and pricing decisions before the application is submitted – from insurer pre-sales helplines and online tools to independent portals. Using these can help save the adviser and the insurers a lot of time and save the phone calls for the more complicated cases, says Knowles.
When the fact find is finished, it’s worth also being clear that these questions will need to be asked again in a more official capacity at the time of the actual application. And, again, explain why. “If I had a pound for every time I heard ‘didn’t we already do this?’ during my first year or so on the phone, I’d be speaking to you now from a sailboat off the Dalmatian coast,” adds Burgess.
Get to know different provider underwriting approaches
All insurers have different ways of doing things. This might be considered both a help – in terms of the possibility to get cover with one insurer at least, even in non-standard circumstances – and a hindrance, in terms of having to get to know a variety of different approaches.
“Embrace the different approaches,” says Andrew Wibberley, director at Alea Risk. “While for most applicants, all insurers will offer standard rates, each insurer will always have a different underwriting approach. This may be confusing or frustrating, but ultimately these nuances are where you can really shine.
“Some advisers will become experts in the different financial approaches taken. Others may know exactly where to place someone with a specific medical history.”
Getting to know the questions that insurers ask and why they ask them, can help to demystify things and make the adviser’s life much easier. It is this that will help advisers communicate to clients upfront what the underwriting entails and why it’s needed.
Take the time to understand what you are asking, says Wibberley. “Knowing what the words mean will improve your empathy and interest in what you’re doing and encourage the client to be open with you. If you don’t understand why you’re asking something then ask someone at the insurer ‘why’ before you get asked it yourself.”
Also, trust the questions, do not reinvent your own, he adds. All insurers now have systems that will ask intelligent questions and in the majority of cases allow a policy to still be immediately accepted after full disclosure is made. “This gives you and the client certainty of claim payment rather than having breezed over a question because ‘they probably don’t really want to know about that…’”
