Aegon has extended its immediate cover facility for business protection and relevant life to 180 days for life protection and 90 days for critical illness.
It has also trimmed the income protection (IP) application process by reducing the amount of financial and medical underwriting evidence it needs and added fracture cover for personal IP policies.
The insurer’s immediate cover facility provides protection for customers while awaiting any necessary medical information under assessment to complete underwriting.
And customers now will not routinely need to provide evidence of earnings for executive IP and personal IP, excluding self-employed.
For self-employed customers, Aegon has doubled the benefit limit for routinely requiring financial evidence from £75,000 to £150,000 per annum.
In addition Aegon has increased the medical limits for income protection. Some of the key improvements include:
- Higher benefit amounts before any medical evidence is routinely required
- Removed routine requirement for an exercise electrocardiogram (ECG) for customers below age 50
- A doubling of the benefit limit for when a HIV test is routinely required from £60,000 to £120,000 per annum
- The removal of routine requirement for evidence of earnings for executive income protection and personal income protection. This excludes self-employed applicants where the personal income protection financial limits have doubled from £75,000 per annum to £150,000 per annum.
Alongside these changes, Aegon has also introduced fracture cover for personal income protection at no additional cost. The benefit amount will depend on the location of the fracture.
Helen Morris, head of underwriting and claims at Aegon, said: “We’re committed to improving both the adviser and client experience when applying for protection and have made significant investment developing our proposition.
“Our immediate cover facility for business protection and relevant life customers, available on life and critical illness benefits, is extremely comprehensive and ensures eligible clients can get immediate cover in place while their application is assessed.
“Removing the routine requirement for evidence of earnings on our income protection products will help advisers get their clients’ protection in place quicker. And by raising the benefit amount before medical evidence is routinely required, we’ll be able to accept more applications immediately.”