Aegon has made a number of product changes to improve its income protection proposition.
This includes extending its immediate cover facility for both its Business Protection and Relevant Life products to 180 days for life cover and 90 days for critical illness benefits.
This immediate cover facility provides protection for customers while medical information is being assessed and underwritten. Aegon is the only provider to offer this facility for critical illness benefits.
At the same time Aegon has also simplified and speeded up the application process, reducing the amount of financial and medical underwriting evidence it needs. This means customers won’t have to routinely provide evidence of earnings for executive income protection, or personal income protection.
Additionally, Aegon has increased the medical limits for income protection, which will provide an overall improvement to the application journey. Some of these improvements include:
- Higher benefit amounts before any medical evidence is routinely required
- Removed routine requirement for an exercise ECG for customers below age 50
- Doubled the benefit limit for when a HIV test is routinely required from £60,000 to £120,000 per annum
Aegon’s head of underwriting and claims Helen Morris says: “We’re committed to improving both the adviser and client experience when applying for protection and have made significant investment developing our proposition.
“Our immediate cover facility for Business Protection and Relevant Life customers, available on life and critical illness benefits, is extremely comprehensive and ensures eligible clients can get immediate cover in place while their application is assessed.
“Removing the routine requirement for evidence of earnings on our income protection products will help advisers get their clients’ protection in place quicker. And by raising the benefit amount before medical evidence is routinely required, we’ll be able to accept more applications immediately.”