In our second quarterly review, we look back at Q2 2024 in which Health & Protection held its first Protection Forum, two leading health insurer CEOs announced departures, our IPMI Summit returned and Axa Health revealed its move to mitigate doctor concerns.
April
April included the inaugural Protection Forum, where attendees heard from protection adviser and Apprentice star Raj Chohan, who spoke about her future plans after being fired after just one defeat on the show.
During the day Phil Jeynes related his personal story about battling cancer while leaders from the major protection insurers revealed their hopes for regulatory intervention over loaded commission.
The start of the financial year also saw AIG Life UK confirm its acquisition by Aviva.
In the fall out from the announcement, advisers expressed hopes Aviva would retain much of what was good about the AIG Life proposition.
April was Stress Awareness Month with Brandon Collins, Alan Lakey and Steve Ellis sharing their stories about stress.
In a big year for the beautiful game with the European Championships taking place, the FJN Cup returned which raised more than £700 on the day for a fantastic charity – Wolfram UK.
May
In May, Health & Protection’s IPMI Summit returned for a third year. At the event Andrew Wilkinson (pictured) cast doubt on Aviva’s appetite to retain AIG’s expat cover post-acquisition.
Wilkinson’s concerns proved prophetic as Health & Protection exclusively revealed Aviva was withdrawing AIG’s entire expatriate cover product including all pipeline applications with immediate effect.
At the IPMI Summit, IMG global head of IPMI Kevin Melton also noted there is an increasing number of UK residents who are taking out the product instead of domestic policies.
In slightly more surreal news, Santé Group secured the services of a second Paul Nugent.
There was a change at the top of one of the largest health insurers as Bupa UK Insurance CEO Alex Perry announced he was taking over as CEO of Nuffield Health later in the year, replacing Steve Gray who announced his retirement.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revealed it had undertaken an in-depth review of the life insurance market’s governance arrangements and pure protection product fair value.
May was also the month of AMII’s AGM where Axa Health’s Sarah Taylor revealed the firm had increased the fees it pays for medical procedures by 15% as some doctors were threatening to “decouple” from the insurer if it did not meet their higher self-pay rates.
June
As spring turned to summer, June was dominated by the lead-up to the unexpected July election, with all the major parties trailing health-related pledges before launching their official manifestos later in the month.
In other news, Health & Protection’s Pride month coverage kicked off with Ben Mizen from OneFamily, while Vitality’s Dani Claydon revealed a former employer had not known how to handle her request for paternity leave.
Another significant senior personnel move in the health insurance sector was revealed with VitalityHealth managing director Dr Keith Klintworth announcing his retirement at the start of 2025.
Klintworth will be succeeded by Dr Arun Thiyagarajan (pictured) who was global healthcare transformation director at Bupa, but Klintworth will continue on in a consultancy role for Vitality.
And there was another notable complany collapse as network Tenet Group appointed administrators.
The IPTF conference took place where Phil Jeynes, told attendees why IP is the ideal policy for people whose stoma limits their ability to work.
The month also saw Protect Z return where Juliette Meads, national account manager at Vitality, warned that social media protection posts must be compliant or risk falling foul of the regulator.
