Unum is aiming to grow the UK group risk market by making income protection, life and critical insurance cover more accessible to UK workers and by launching an online quote system for small schemes.
Unum Select is designed to bring IP, life insurance, or a combination of all three to the wider employee population by offering flexible, affordable options that provide core essential cover tailored to individual needs. Employers can fully fund, part fund or ask employees to pay their premiums. Unum says this budget-conscious approach aims to open up the benefits to all employees, rather than being limited to high-earners, as is often typical in the UK.
Unum is taking a phased approach for the launch, and has already rolled the proposition out with an initial group of adviser development partners, who are now accredited to sell Unum Select. More brokers are currently undergoing accreditation, with a broad rollout by the beginning of April 2011.
UnumOnline Quotes is a new online quote system for small schemes hosted on unum.co.uk. It aims to give brokers a faster and easier quotation process by automatically matching occupations and by including a Companies House check up front.
“We are committed to finding ways to protect the majority of the UK workforce, rather than the minority,” says Marco Forato, chief marketing officer at Unum. “Part of that commitment is around making cover more accessible, and importantly we also need to find ways to make the process of doing group risk business easier.
“Only 1 in 10 private sector employees in the UK are covered by income protection provided by their employer. In its Comprehensive Spending Review, the Government made it very clear that it will be looking to individuals to become responsible for their own welfare and protection, and it is increasingly pushing financial protection responsibility towards employers as well as employees.”