Aviva is withdrawing AIG’s entire expatriate cover product including all pipeline applications with immediate effect, Health & Protection can reveal.
Health & Protection understands Aviva took the decision to close the product to new business this week and this includes cases where terms have been issued and not yet taken up.
Health & Protection understands that products will only be available to customers who at the time of application are living in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Gibraltar, and consider that to be their main home.
Aviva confirmed existing policyholders will not be affected but did not say how many pipeline customers would be affected.
In a statement sent to Health & Protection this afternoon, an Aviva spokesperson said: “Since we acquired AIG Life in April, we’ve been working closely together to review how both businesses work.
“As protection for customers living overseas isn’t an area of the market that Aviva wishes the combined business to focus on going forward, AIG Life has today announced that they are no longer offering products to customers living overseas.”
In the immediate aftermath of the deal, protection advisers told Health & Protection they hoped Aviva would retain ‘unique’ AIG aspects following acquisition.
This has particularly applied to AIG’s offering for expatriates.
Earlier this month at Health & Protection’s third annual IPMI Summit, Andrew Wilkinson, director of Moneysworth, told delegates the prospect of AIG’s protection cover for British expats disappearing following Aviva’s acquisition of its rival insurer was “concerning”.
Wilkinson said the the $64m question was whether Aviva will keep the AIG product and terms for expats or ditch them following finalisation of its £453m acquisition of AIG Life UK from Corebridge Financial, a subsidiary of American International Group.