Called Simply Class, the product, which is launched today, will be available to registered advisers on the provider’s Class platform.
The launch coincides with the day auto-enrolment hits the 1.1 million sub-50 employee firms, with Canada Life hoping the product will grow the group life market by 1 per cent. The provider says the system provides four quotations, for 1x and 2x salary and fixed benefits of £25,000 and £50,000, in one minute, using basic pensions data such as name, sex, date of birth and salary.
Quotations provide ‘reasons to buy’ information to address what employers need to know before purchasing group life assurance, including an explanation of the costs, taxation of premiums and benefits. Benefits are free from medical underwriting with full cover, regardless of pre-existing health conditions, as long as the employee is not absent from work when the policy starts. The full quotation and ‘on risk’ process will take under five minutes, the provider says. The product has a minimum premium of £480 a year, with flexible commission of up to 30 per cent available every year the contract remains in force. It is written under a master trust arrangement for new-to-market schemes, and it also includes a bereavement counselling and probate helpline.
Canada Life Group Insurance marketing director Paul Avis says: “On June 1st 2015 we have a once in a business lifetime opportunity to grow the group life assurance market as 1.1m new-to-benefits discussions start to happen. As the war for talent begins to rage, and with every employer now offering a pension, staff retention and attraction is becoming ever more important. Group life assurance could therefore be the most important benefit an employer buys going forwards.
“Having identified that cost (accompanied by tax benefit information), simplicity, administrative ease and reward for the adviser are the key factors for success, we have spent the last nine months deconstructing all of the traditional, technically-focused information we routinely provide. Our aim is to make life really easy for advisers to sell and employers to buy group life assurance alongside the auto-enrolment pension. Simply Class provides a single, transactional, low-cost, tax-efficient benefit, which is easily administered and appropriately remunerative for all types of advisers.”