Insurance News Income Protection Insurers Encourage Customers To Think About Their Health 18471248
Income protection insurers encourage customers to think about their health
07 September 2010 / by Paul Dicken
Income protection insurance providers are increasingly offering promotions to encourage policyholders to adopt a healthier lifestyle, a research company has found.
Independent financial services researchers Defaqto said companies were running initiatives to encourage healthier living, including discounted health club membership and free assessments.
Protection analyst at Defaqto, Ben Heffer, said: “The provision of health and wellbeing services for policyholders is a welcome move to engage with the customer and encourage them to lead a healthier lifestyle.
“This has clear benefits for the policyholder: not only in terms of the peace of mind provided by the protection policy but also, as a result of adopting a healthier lifestyle, less likelihood of actually suffering an illness or incapacity.”
Heffer said this was also a ‘win-win’ scenario for income protection insurers as a healthier client base should reduce incidence claims.
Deafqto’s research found that Aviva Health UK were offering discounted health club membership for income protection customers; BUPA are running an initiative where a new income protection customer, and introducing financial adviser, receive a free health assessment.
LV= have a Healthy Steps programme which helps people understand their current state of health and how healthy they could be, along with the steps to achieve it.
Similarly, Prudential’s PruProtect Vitality programme rewards insurance customers who lead a healthy lifestyle by offering premium discounts and discounts with partner organisations.
Meanwhile, the mutual insurance company LV= published strong performance results for the first six months of 2010 on 7 September.
The group said life insurance sales were up 40 per cent on the same period in 2009, with a 55 per cent increase in its protection and savings business.
LV=, which also provides asset management services, reported strong performance of its with-profits portfolio, with the development of a retail fund management franchise boosted by improved credit ratings for funds.
© Fair Investment Company Ltd