Six US insurers awarded government bailout funds
by David Masters
Story link: Six US insurers awarded government bailout funds
Six of America’s largest life insurance firms are set to receive bailout funds from the US Treasury.
Prudential, Lincoln National, Allstate, Principal Financial, Hartford Financial, and Ameriprise have all been granted preliminary approval to receive funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
The share price of many insurers rose between 3% and 6% following the news [...]
Pacific Life Re announces longevity deal with Abbey Life
by Gill Montia
Story link: Pacific Life Re announces longevity deal with Abbey Life
Pacific Life Re, the US specialist life reinsurer, has secured a £1.5 billion longevity contract with Abbey Life, the UK closed life insurer.
Another reinsurer is involved in the transaction but has not been named.
Abbey Life continues to manage £12 billion of assets with regard to around 1.2 million policies, although the company has been closed [...]
Heath Lambert joins forces with MedicAlert
by Gill Montia
Story link: Heath Lambert joins forces with MedicAlert
Heath Lambert Group has joined forces with MedicAlert, the charity that provides an identification system for people with medical conditions, to launch a new range of insurance products.
From today, Heath Lambert’s Unique Insurance Services brand is offering travel, life, home, motor and pet insurance, plus pension annuities, to those with pre-existing conditions and allergies.
Quotes are [...]
Nearly half of Britons go without protection insurance
by Gill Montia
Story link: Nearly half of Britons go without protection insurance
Barclays has been researching the UK protection insurance market and has concluded that nearly one-half of British adults have no policies in place to cover events such as illness and redundancy.
According to the survey 47% of UK adults have no protection insurance, while 52% are without life insurance.
Seventy-five per cent of those questioned said [...]
Japan’s Yamoto Life Insurance goes bust
by Gill Montia
Story link: Japan’s Yamoto Life Insurance goes bust
Japanese firm, Yamato Life Insurance, has gone bust and is filing with the country’s Financial Services Agency to ask for court protection.
The insurer, which is described as of medium size and is a household name in Japan, has debts of $2.7 billion dollars.
Turbulent markets and tumbling share prices in Tokyo on Friday meant that the [...]
Credit crisis impacts the health of the nation
by Gill Montia
Story link: Credit crisis impacts the health of the nation
Research commissioned by Friends Provident warns that the credit crunch could have a dramatic impact on the nation’s health.
The Britain Under Pressure report suggests that almost 29 million people in the UK, or nearly two-thirds of adults, feel more stressed, less fit and healthy, and more prone to illness than they did three years [...]
Britons overestimate the cost of protection insurance
by Gill Montia
Story link: Britons overestimate the cost of protection insurance
Legal & General (L&G) is concerned that Britons don’t take out protection insurance because they believe they can’t afford it.
In the recent survey of 1,964 adults, L&G found that 65% of respondents over-estimated the cost of taking out £150,000 worth of life cover.
The group’s commercial director for housing, Karen Blatchford, points out that life [...]
Life assurance premiums fall 50% in a decade
by Gill Montia
Story link: Life assurance premiums fall 50% in a decade
Financial website, Moneyfacts.co.uk, has published research showing that in the past decade the cost of term life assurance has roughly halved.
For non-smokers, keen competition has reduced the average male premium by 53% since July 1998, representing a saving of £3,018 over a 25-year term.
The average female non-smoker premium has fallen 48% in ten years, reducing [...]
Friends Provident cuts final bonuses by up to 50%
by Gill Montia
Story link: Friends Provident cuts final bonuses by up to 50%
Friends Provident is warning its with-profits policyholders that the value of their final bonuses will be cut, after the firm’s £13 billion with-profits fund lost more than 7% during the first half of this year.
The life and pensions provider says it will maintain its regular bonuses but that final bonuses paid on investments in its [...]
ABI issues new guidance on HIV
by Gill Montia
Story link: ABI issues new guidance on HIV
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has published a new version of its consumer guide for Gay Men on HIV and life insurance.
The updates are intended to continue work already undertaken by the insurance sector in ensuring gay people are treated fairly.
In the past, many gay men applying for life insurance felt they were not [...]
Asda launches Real Life protection plan
by Gill Montia
Story link: Asda launches Real Life protection plan
Asda Financial Services has launched its Real Life Cover protection plan which it says can provide financial protection across a variety of eventualities.
The policy, which has been developed in conjunction with LifeSearch and Fortis, contains seven elements including life, critical illness, income insurance and unemployment cover.
Consumers can select the cover they need on a menu [...]
Fortis launches two UK life products
by Gill Montia
Story link: Fortis launches two UK life products
Global banking and insurance group, Fortis, has launched its first UK life products, following the formation of a UK life division in February of this year.
Your Life Plan and Real Life Cover are available through a small group of financial advisers, prior to a full roll-out.
Your Life Plan has been designed to provide a choice [...]
Prudential to retain £8.7 billion inherited estate
by Gill Montia
Story link: Prudential to retain £8.7 billion inherited estate
Prudential has announced that its plans to return part of its £8.7 billion with-profits surplus to policyholders and shareholders are being shelved.
Around 4.5 million policyholders could have benefited from the reattribution of the company’s so-called inherited estate which has accrued because Prudential has held back a proportion of its investment returns during profitable years, to [...]
Genetic testing moratorium extended to 2014
by Gill Montia
Story link: Genetic testing moratorium extended to 2014
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is extending its moratorium on the use of predictive genetic testing, to 2014.
The moratorium was established in 2001 and covers policies worth up to £500,000 for life insurance; £300,000 for critical illness insurance and £30,000 a year for income protection insurance.
The extension leaves consumers free to apply for [...]
Wesleyan appoints BUPA to protection panel
by Gill Montia
Story link: Wesleyan appoints BUPA to protection panel
Wesleyan Assurance Society, which specialises in insuring the medical, dental, legal and teaching professions, has appointed Bupa Individual Protection (BIP) to its protection panel.
From this month, BIP life and critical illness products, which have recently attained a five star accreditation from Defaqto, will be available to the society’s members.
According to Callum Girvan, Wesleyan’s Director [...]
New commercial division at Heath Lambert
by Richard Kilner
Story link: New commercial division at Heath Lambert
A new specialist division is being launched by Heath Lambert Group.
The Heath Lambert Commercial Affinity and Select Business Division will focus upon small businesses and commercial affinities.
The firm’s chief executive officer, Adrian Colosso, has expressed his pleasure at the new division’s creation, adding that it was one further step along Heath Lambert’s long-term plan to [...]
Fortis launches UK life business
by Gill Montia
Story link: Fortis launches UK life business
Fortis has launched Fortis Life UK, in a bid to expand its UK business.
The new division will be headed by Martin Werth, former business development manager with Munich Re.
Shanti Duggal, former head of e-business for Friends Provident Life & Pensions, has been appointed operations director.
Although Fortis currently sells protection products to markets outside the [...]
Life insurance most important policy for consumers
by Richard Kilner
Story link: Life insurance most important policy for consumers
Prudential has conducted research that reveals people would sooner relinquish non-essential goods/services such as mobile phone contracts before surrendering their payment protection or life insurance policies.
Recent fears regarding the credit crunch and rising energy and foods costs has led to people looking for ways to cut back, especially given the new worries about the prospect [...]
Brits prefer mobile phones to life insurance
by Gill Montia
Story link: Brits prefer mobile phones to life insurance
Life and pensions company Friend Provident, has found that 54% of people questioned in its Protection Survey had no life insurance.
Of the 46% of respondents with life insurance, the majority (nearly seven in ten) said they would seek professional advice when considering cover and that they would do this by consulting a financial adviser, or [...]
Axa pilot project aims to close protection gap
by Gill Montia
Story link: Axa pilot project aims to close protection gap
AXA has launched a new training project aimed at helping independent financial advisers (IFAs) sell protection insurance.
The insurer has joined forces with Chisenhale Consulting, the sales training and development firm, to run a pilot programme that comprises a number of modules promoting the importance of client discussions on protection cover.
Participating IFAs will have the opportunity [...]
