The Protection Distributors Group (PDG) has revealed the latest list of insurers that meet its best practice claims criteria to become its claims charter signatories.
The move follows a review of practices – the first since the charter was introduced in 2018 – after the group’s members noted that claims standards had slipped during the pandemic.
The PDG added these reviews will now be carried out annually as it seeks to encourage insurers to improve best practice and keep claimants at the centre of the claims process.
Fourteen insurers have met PDG’s standards and been named as signatories to the claims charter for 2022. These are Aegon, AIG, British Friendly, Guardian, Holloway, HSBC Life, Legal & General, LV=, MetLife, Scottish Widows, Shepherds Friendly, The Exeter, Vitality and Zurich.
All of those listed were previous signatories aside from HSBC which has recently signed up.
Royal London is not included in the claims charter but the PDG said the insurer was working hard to rejoin as soon as possible.
The claims charter was introduced in 2018 to encourage better outcomes for claimants by improving basic levels of best practice undertaken by insurers. The charter sets out several criteria which must be met before an insurer can become a signatory.
Signatories of the charter commit to:
- Making a dedicated claims team available, with a phone based claims process for claimants to submit and manage their claim throughout, supported by a digital documentation to assess claims efficiently. Paperwork is only used where there are no digital alternatives possible or where the claimant requests.
- No potential claimant can be turned away by anyone not on the claims team.
- Claimants to have a named point of contact, with regular updates to claimants at least every two weeks, unless otherwise agreed, to keep them informed of progress. Queries from claimants during the claims process to be responded to by end of next working day.
- Intermediaries are notified of all claims when made, to include the product being claimed on, without the customer being asked to opt in. Opt-out options should be avoided whenever possible, but if the customer explicitly asks for their intermediary not be informed then their wish must be adhered to. This will ensure records can be updated and no potential distress caused to clients and families through the intermediary not knowing about a claim.
- Insurers proactively offer the PDG funeral payment pledge and/or advance payments to speed up life cover claims where there is no trust in place, or where other factors could delay payment being made.
- Once a claim is approved, money is to be paid to the claimant within 72 hours – ignoring external factors out of insurer control such as probate. This excludes income protection claims which should be paid at the earliest available payment date.
Neil McCarthy, chairman of the PDG, said: “There is no doubt the past two years have been challenging for insurers, particularly with regard to claims handling. But we felt the time was right to review claims practices across the industry to ensure we are maintaining the standards we have currently identified as being best practice.
“We ran an in-depth survey looking at insurer claims practices across the industry to ensure existing claims charter signatories were continuing to abide by the criteria. There was a sense among the group members that claims standards had slipped during the pandemic, and that there was therefore a need to investigate this to ensure the robustness of the charter.
“Where we identified the charter’s criteria was not being met, we worked with insurers to ensure improvements were made for claimants and intermediaries so that as many as possible met the charter’s requirements.
“It is our very real hope that those insurers who are not current signatories will work towards meeting the criteria and we look forward to welcoming further signatories in the future.”
The PDG has 21 full members from the protection intermediary community.