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Health insurance news: Friends Provident

Friends Provident is a leading financial services group with 170 years of experience in protection insurance. It is a top ten life and pensions UK insurance company.

Friends Provident : Company profile

Recent news

2007 critical illness statistics Friends Provident has released its critical illness claims data for 2007. This is the first full year of data available, since the insurer changed its stance on reckless non-disclosure and started to pay a proportion of a critical illness claim where unrelated non-disclosure had happened.
Friends Provident withdraws scary income protection mailshot Friends Provident has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for sending out a mailshot that could be mistaken for medical test results. The marketing material was sent to 10,000 people in a brown envelope that looked as if it contained test results or hospital medical records.
Health insurance companies make customer pledge 26 health insurance companies have signed up to the Customer Impact Scheme, an initiative to provide excellent standards of service to purchasers of income protection and critical illness insurance plans. Each insurer has pledged to:Develop and promote products and services that meet the needs of customers Provide customers with clear information and good service when they buy products Provide...
Tax efficient Life/Pension Term Assurance - No insurer has permanently withdrawn from offering PTA Despite what you may have read on other web sites, in the trade press, national and local papers and heard or seen, NO insurer has yet confirmed they have permanently withdrawn from offering Pension Term Assurance. The following insurers have either told us direct or by an official press release, that their product is suspended from any more new business or enquiries. The suspension will stay...
Three out of four Brits have no will power Three quarters of people in the UK do not have a will - leaving their families walking a financial tightrope when they die, says new research from Friends Provident. James Ward, director of marketing at Friends Provident, says: “Where there is a will there is a way… to determine exactly where your hard earned cash and assets go when you die. Our research found that 43% of...
Friends Provident enters business protection market Friends Provident has become the latest insurer to enter into the business protection market. It has launched a Business Protection Plan which includes level and decreasing life cover with or without critical illness cover, all with guaranteed rates. A specialist business protection team has been set up consisting of experienced underwriters and dedicated case handlers, who will oversee the...
Friends Provident enhances its financial underwriting requirements to make life even easier Friends Provident has introduced new evidence requirements and increased the limits for financial underwriting on life cover, life cover with critical illness and standalone critical illness cover. This will help enable more straight through processing of applications. It now only requires financial evidence on applications for personal and business protection cases if the sum assured exceeds...
Friends Provident review may recommend sale Friends Provident, which in 2007 failed in its plans to merge with Resolution, is undertaking a strategic review that could lead to a sale of all or part of the company. Sir Adrian Montague, the executive chairman of the life insurer, is reported to be opposed to an outright sale of the business but some analysts are expressing the view that the UK’s fourth-largest life insurer does not...
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 undertaking research online and through newspapers....
Friends Provident unveils new income protection model Friends Provident, the income protection market leader, has linked up with MorganAsh to provide a tele-interviewing service to speed up income protection applications and reduce non-disclosure. Qualified and experienced nurses undertake the interviews, at a time and place to suit the consumer. If requested by Friends Provident they will contact the applicant and ask them a number of questions...
Resolution buys Friends Provident Although sold as a merger, owners of Scottish Provident, Resolution, have effectively agreed to takeover Friends Provident. Resolution has about £1bn of cash it wants to invest. Friends need capital to fund its expansion plans. Because Resolution has the capital, its management will have the upper hand in the new company to be called Friends Financial. The plans have yet to receive...
Scottish Provident brand to be retained in merger Resolution and Friends Provident have confirmed that the Scottish Provident brand will be retained should owners Resolution buy Friends Provident. The strategic takeover is unlikely to be completed before November this year. While the companies are claiming that there will be no change in brand position, this is clearly just a holding action to keep intermediaries and customers sweet for the rest...
Friends Provident for sale Although talked of as a merger, in reality, life insurer Friends Provident is for sale. Friends Provident, the FTSE 100 life insurer, looks set to become the focus of a bidding war this summer, with the group having confirmed that it is in talks with its rival Resolution. Resolution is unlikely to get a clear shot at Friends, with several of its UK competitors - such as Aviva and Standard Life -...
A first on critical illness non-disclosure Friends Provident will pay a proportion of a critical illness claim where unrelated non-disclosure has happened. This initiative means that provided the non-disclosure is not related to the cause of the claim, and the insurer would not have turned down the application at the start, Friends Provident will make an offer based on a proportion of the total claim. Mark Jones, protection and actuarial...
Friends Provident celebrate 175 years Friends Provident has launched a new history and future section on its website www.friendsprovident.com/175, celebrating the company's 175 year history of progressive thinking and its values as an innovative financial services institution. Far more interesting than the history is Into the Future, which presents research into what the future may hold, including:Elderpreneurs: kick-start business...
Friends Provident removes all standard exclusions from income protection benefits Friends Provident has removed the HIV/AIDS and war exclusions on its Individual and Executive Income Protection products, making it the first UK life assurance firm to ditch all standard exclusions on income protection benefits throughout the range. As part of a number of improvements, the period of linked incapacity during which any deferred period can be waived has also been extended from 6 to...
Greenbee : The John Lewis Partnership teams up with Friends Provident From 2007 Friends Provident will offer life assurance policies to Greenbee customers. Insurance company Friends Provident has been selected by The John Lewis Partnership’s new direct services company - Greenbee - to be a partner in a new major distribution agreement. From 2007 Friends Provident will offer life assurance policies to Greenbee customers. Greenbee is a brand new direct...
Figures for rejection of claims under critical illness insurance Until recently, insurers resisted pressure from consumer groups to release figures to counter anecdotal evidence that many would be claimants were refused. Most major critical illness insurers now publish annual figures showing the proportion of critical illness claims they reject. Some even list the reasons. 'Non-disclosure is a tremendous problem,' says Sue Wilkinson of Scottish Provident,...