Guardian has dramatically cut the length of time applicants for life and critical illness (CI) policies must have lived in the UK and been registered with a doctor.
From today applicants for the insurer’s life and critical illness products must have lived in the UK for the past six months and have the right to remain, and be currently registered with a UK doctor.
Previously applicants must have lived in the UK and been registered with a UK GP for at least two years.
The updated criteria will be applied to any new quotes or applications for life protection, life essentials, critical illness protection, or combined life and critical illness protection from today.
Advisers with clients who did not meet the old criteria, will be able to reapply from today should they wish to.
The changes do not apply to income protection, which retains the existing criteria. All applicants must still be UK residents.
Hilary Banks, chief commercial officer at Guardian, (pictured) said the previous residency criteria was holding advisers back and “was a barrier for clients who had recently moved to the UK”.
“We’ve now made a change, making our protection more inclusive and accessible to more people,” she said.
Paul Shearman, proposition director at Openwork, added: “We welcome this seemingly small, but important, change by Guardian which makes it easier for clients who’ve moved to the UK to apply for their life and critical illness cover.
“In our view, this approach to residency is fairer and more inclusive. It also gives advisers with clients who’ve moved here within the last two years a better range of covers to choose from for their protection recommendations.”