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Advisers are focused on the client’s needs, the risks they face and the confidence to make a decision. Then the application goes in, and the conversation can shift.
Has it moved forward? Is more information needed? When is a decision likely?
There’s a moment in almost every protection journey when the conversation changes.
Underwriting tends to be talked about most when something doesn’t go to plan. Advisers rarely tell stories about cases that moved smoothly from application to decision.
The ones that stay with them are usually those where a straightforward recommendation became more complicated than anyone expected.
Speed helps, but it’s not the whole story.
A case can take time without feeling stuck, provided the adviser understands where it is, what’s needed and what happens next.
That’s the difference between waiting and uncertainty.
Certainty protects momentum
For years, the industry conversation has centred on speed. Faster applications, quicker evidence gathering and earlier decisions all matter. Nobody benefits from unnecessary delays.
But the cases that cause the most frustration aren’t always the ones that take the longest. They’re often the ones where it’s hard to see what happens next.
A client asks for an update and there isn’t much to tell them. More information is needed, but the next step isn’t clear. What began as a positive decision to put protection in place starts to feel like a process with a life of its own.
That’s when setting expectations becomes harder. Instead of keeping the client focused on why the cover matters, the adviser can find themselves explaining the process, chasing updates and trying to rebuild confidence.
Life continues around the application. A client may be fully engaged when they apply, but a few weeks later their attention has moved back to work, family and everything else competing for their time.
Their need for protection hasn’t changed, but their focus may have changed.
Maintaining momentum helps reduce the risk of a client disengaging before their protection is in place. It’s not just about making the application quicker.
It’s about giving clients fewer reasons to drift away from a decision they’ve already made.
Clear where possible, expert where it matters
Good underwriting depends on sound judgement, technical expertise and the time needed to reach a fair decision.
The opportunity is to remove avoidable hold-ups that make the process harder to explain.
That’s where we’ve focused our underwriting work: removing unnecessary barriers while keeping expert judgement where it’s needed.
Where a clear decision can be made earlier, it should be.
We’ve continued to refine underwriting rules across the UnderwriteMe Protection Platform and the Scottish Widows Extranet.
The aim is to give clearer outcomes earlier and reduce referrals where a case doesn’t need an underwriter to look at it.
In July, for example, many occupation-based term restrictions were removed, meaning 99.5% of occupations could apply for income protection up to age 70, improving customer access to cover.*
Advisers don’t need to see every rule change happening behind the scenes. They need to feel the difference it makes to the case in front of them.
Removing avoidable waiting
Technology helps, but it isn’t the story on its own. Its value lies in whether it makes the experience clearer and more efficient for advisers and clients.
One significant development has been the wider use of the iGPR Magic Service, which helps us obtain digital GP records more efficiently.
That can reduce delays linked to medical evidence and give underwriters more time to focus on the decision itself.
Underwriting will always remain a people business. Every client brings their own circumstances, and some cases need individual judgement.
That’s why we continue to invest in our underwriting teams, helping them build expertise as medical research, underwriting thinking and market practice evolve.
The aim isn’t to automate every decision. It’s to make straightforward cases as straightforward as possible, so experienced underwriters can give the cases that need judgement the attention they deserve.
Giving advisers a clearer basis for the conversation
In 2026, 78% of Scottish Widows Life and Critical Illness applications received a point-of-sale decision without further underwriting, subject to the information disclosed by the client.*
Where a case needs individual assessment, our service standards have remained consistent throughout 2026 for both initial underwriting and medical and second-stage underwriting.
For advisers, those measures provide a firmer basis for setting expectations.
Careful underwriting still matters. The point is to make the process around it easier for advisers to explain and easier for clients to stay with.
That can mean fewer conversations explaining silence, less avoidable chasing and more confidence that the recommendation will keep moving towards completion.
For clients, underwriting isn’t really what they’re engaging with. They’re looking to protect themselves, their family or their business.
Advisers may not remember the underwriting that worked quietly in the background.
They’ll remember the client who got the cover they needed, the application that didn’t require endless chasing and the recommendation that quietly became a policy.
That’s underwriting doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: protecting the momentum behind the advice and helping the client move from decision to cover.
*Scottish Widows Underwriting data, 2026 and Scottish Widows Income Protection occupation update, July 2026
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