Daily Insurance Industry News
 
 
Daily Insurance Industry News
Saturday 20th of March 2010
May 15, 2009

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 [...]



February 10, 2009

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 [...]



January 5, 2009

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 [...]



November 27, 2008

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 [...]



October 10, 2008

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 [...]



September 11, 2008

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 [...]



August 28, 2008

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 [...]



July 24, 2008

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 [...]



July 21, 2008

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 [...]



July 14, 2008

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 [...]



July 8, 2008

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 [...]



July 7, 2008

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 [...]



June 27, 2008

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 [...]



June 16, 2008

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 [...]



May 20, 2008

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 [...]



May 6, 2008

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 [...]



February 20, 2008

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 [...]



January 22, 2008

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 [...]



January 8, 2008

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 [...]



December 5, 2007

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 [...]