Continuing our review of 2023 with Q3 during which Health & Protection returned to the Middle East, Advo’s Sue Smith retired, government launched a consultation on PMI tax breaks, Aviva apologised to private medical insurance (PMI) customers, the protection sector marked the 40th anniversary of the first critical illness policy, the FCA warned about poor selling practices and Aviva acquired AIG Life.
July
In July Health & Protection published our second Middle East IPMI Roundtable from Dubai examining how the market is evolving.
The month also heard artificial intelligence (AI) does not pose an immediate threat to advisers jobs – but underwriters may need to have confidence in their ability to evolve faster than the technology.
We also brought you news of the retirement of Sue Smith, head of private clients at Advo, after more than three decades in the health insurance industry. It would not be the last time Sue hit the headlines this year though.
And in a momentous move government launched a consultation asking whether there was a case for tax relief to be introduced for private medical insurance provided though the workplace, despite not seeing the case for the tax break itself.
Staying with all things Parliamentary, July also saw the Work and Pensions Select Committee call on government to consider the role income protection can play in enabling people to stay in and return to work.
And at the end of the month, in an exclusive Health & Protection revealed Aviva was reviewing its PMI growth plans for 2023 and 2024 as it apologised to PMI customers while it continues to tackle the issue of long waiting times for its call centres.
August
Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first critical illness (CI) product in August, Health & Protection spoke to Johnny Timpson about meeting Dr Marius Barnard – the brains behind this first policy at an industry conference, how his work as a surgeon influenced its design and how he answered Timpson’s call to come out of retirement to help develop a new CI offering for customers in the UK.
The month also saw Bupa reveal it was scrapping a further £59m Covid rebate for its UK customers as the private medical insurance (PMI) provider said deferred claims from the pandemic were starting to appear.
Following up on our July exclusive, in its half year results call Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc revealed the insurer’s efforts to improve service levels for its private medical insurance (PMI) customers would not affect growth plans, and said service was expected to return to normal by the end of the year.
Staying with Aviva, Tracy Garrad was appointed CEO of Aviva Canada.
September
September kicked off with another significant appointment – this time in the form of Mike Dalby, who Howden appointed as managing director of its UK consumer health and life business.
And Health & Protection launched our International Introducing column with Steven Luk, the executive director of employee benefits at Howden Insurance Brokers in Hong Kong as its first subject.
The second edition of Health & Protection’s Individual PMI report was published, revealing a market seeing strong growth and demand continues to rise.
September also saw the latest iteration of the IPTF’s Income Protection Awareness week during which Stacy Penn, senior policy adviser at Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) warned that assuming customers only want to talk about a mortgage and not protection does not fit with a post-Consumer Duty world.
The month also saw the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issue a stark warning to protection insurers about “poor selling practices” and slow restorative action and demand better due diligence of new advisers.
And in yet more acquisition news Aviva revealed it had acquired AIG Life UK from AIG subsidiary Corebridge Financial for £460m.