NEWS: UK Life Insurance companies - bill to change emphasis on disclosure
In the UK, despite a number of recent upheavels mainly due to the current economic situation - we have a mature and trustworthy life insurance industry, well regulated by the FSA for the protection of consumers..
This year, (2011) it appears that moves are afoot to push the industry towards an even fairer way of dealing with consumers.
In the past, some UK life insurance customers have fallen foul of their not having 'disclosed' certain information, that later is deemed to be important to the life insurer when a claim comes in. There have indeed been some very sad cases, which have only been resolved when the media becomes involved and the insurer ends up being shamed into to doing the 'right thing' and paying the life insurance benefits out.
Needless to say, this type of incident is pretty rare, but it is a worry for many consumers who inadvertently miss off some seemingly inocuous visit to the doctor - only to find that in their time of need their claim is rejected. When filling out the
UK life insurance forms, who hasn't racked their brains for the date of their last visit? Or spends time rubbing their head, trying to remember why they may have visited a doctor at all, over the years - particularly if the outcome, in the end - was all ok.
So it comes as welcome news that a new bill is being discussed that will move the duty of disclosure of information, away from the life insured - to the life insurance company itself. In a nutshell, this means that the
UK life insurance company will need to ask and obtain any specific information that they deem pertinent.
It turns out that this may not be as bad as it sounds for the
life insurance providers themselves - it should give them more confidence in
their actuarial predictions and could even end up saving them money.
Let's hope it goes through!
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Posted June 2011
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