The provider’s new ONEderwriting service promises that clients will now be underwritten once, and then never again, even when their salary changes.
To reduce the time taken to get clients insured, tele-interviews are now offered for all of their scheme members and visits to the doctor have been replaced with company medicals or convenient medical examinations at home or in the office.
When no further medical evidence is needed, a decision is made within the week.
Diane Buckley, managing director of group protection at L&G says: “These changes further improve the service we are able to offer. We appreciate that employers and advisers need both speed and convenience in underwriting and believe that these improvements give us a market leading offering.
“For group income protection schemes with over 50 members, ONEderwriting means that they’ll be underwritten once and, if accepted, then never again. This includes future increases up to the maximum benefit of £300,000, where the member’s cover is subject to a loading, or where the insured basis is changed at a future date for all members.
L&G has also abolished its non medical limits which means no automatic requests for GP reports and medical evidence.
Its new Members’ Declaration Form will result in fewer requests for medical examinations, says the provider.
L&G is also providing maximum cover for group life.
It says that the market has been slow to react to the opportunities available to increase free cover limits in order to reflect the new lifetime allowance. L&G is now offering a free cover limit equal to the lifetime allowance for schemes with over 5,000 members or £500,000 premium.
This is currently £1.65 million but the free cover limit will be index-linked to keep track of future life-time allowances and protect against inflation.
Glenn Laming, sales director for group protection at L&G says “We continually review our proposition to ensure it meets the needs of our customers and I’m delighted to announce this new development which demonstrates our ability to lead the market. The new limits will automatically be available to the larger schemes, but we will consider cases below this on a case by case basis”