A commonly held view across the insurance sector is that proper diversity across product design and insurance workforce populations should lie at the heart of effectively serving customers.
It is clear the sector has made some headway regarding mental health and underwriting and more generally in improving access to insurance for certain communities.
But while the sector has made greater strides in recruiting talent from diverse communities such as the neurodivergent and below C-suite level, it appears not enough progress is being made to achieve better balance of ethnic diversity at boardroom level.
Action on diversity needs to be wide ranging
“In order to properly serve a diverse UK population, the life and health insurance industry should itself be diverse and inclusive,” Katya Maclean, CEO at Guardian, tells Health & Protection.
In order to achieve this goal, Maclean adds that action needs to be wide ranging – covering underwriting, claims, product design, customer and adviser experience, individual company culture and industry-wide culture.
And one area Maclean cites in which progress is being made is around mental health.
“There have been notable industry improvements to the underwriting of mental health so that fewer people are excluded,” she continues.
“The population now understands and talks very differently about mental health, compared to 10 or 20 years ago, and more people have something to disclose here.
“We adopted our new mental health question set last year – which differentiates between anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts – to reflect our latest understanding of the risk associated with the range of different mental health conditions, as well as take on board new ABI best practice guidance.
“Our questions better support advisers and their clients in making full and accurate disclosure, which means they’ll receive the appropriate underwriting outcome, without compromising speed.”
Chronic condition improvements
Encouragingly, this is not the only area of progress.
Debbie Kennedy, chief executive at LifeSearch, also points to greater strides the sector has been making to improving access for people with diabetes.
“It started with innovation from Royal London and its product designed for diabetics,” she says.
“The Exeter has always been strong at offering propositions for customers with diabetes too and Bluezone Insurance has taken this further and its bespoke product for this condition will provide a template for developing future targeted products for chronic conditions.
“Consequently there has been a trickle-down effect from these condition-specific products, resulting in a general improvement to access to terms for diabetics from all providers.”
Work still to do
But Andrew Wilkinson, director at Moneysworth, adds that the number one trend he has noticed is a disparity in service and access between the two biggest sections of the market.
“Consumers with no rateable disclosures get access to a wide choice of products across the market, with instant comparisons that facilitate competitive premiums and fast service,” Wilkinson explains.
“Cover for most of this group can be arranged on a straight through basis meaning that clients can be on risk the same day.
“Consumers with rateable health disclosures can access a more limited range of products.
“Many insurers continue to block access to income protection (IP) and critical illness (CI) for people diagnosed with specific conditions on a 100% decline basis which means that such consumers can find themselves unable to insure their incomes leaving their incomes, homes and their family at risk.”
Duncan Reeves, head of underwriting and claims at National Friendly, adds there is still plenty of room for the market as a whole to be more inclusive and accessible.
“Products such as critical illness have historically been viewed as only obtainable for the healthy or those with minor ailments,” Reeves says.
“However, as medicine and the understanding of conditions improves and thus, the health of people with certain health concerns does too, products offered need to follow suit and adapt to the new risk profile.
“A good example is the willingness of providers to offer products to people who have been diagnosed with HIV and to do so with attractive terms; something that we are doing right now at National Friendly with income protection.”
Progress on HIV
This is an industry trend Wilkinson’s clients have benefitted from.
“Not only have we managed to obtain life insurance at standard premium rates for some of our clients living with HIV, we have also recently been able to arrange critical illness and income protection for some of these clients,” Wilkinson reveals.
“Previously people living with HIV were unable to access any individual IP or CI insurance so this is real progress and hopefully this will light the way for similar progressive changes to be made in respect of some other health conditions.”
But meeting the needs of a customer base with an array of different needs requires a diverse team of people who can help intermediaries to tailor messaging accordingly and promote the fact that products are inclusive, says Jennifer Gilchrist, protection specialist at Royal London.
“Our design and development team also make sure we build innovative products to meet customer need across a wide spectrum of the population and designs are tested with a cross section of people,” she continues.
“We also use data insight and research to continually understand evolving diversity and inclusion challenges and avoid limitation to a product’s appeal to any particular group of customers,” she added.
Considering neurodivergence
This is especially true of neurodivergent communities, with Maclean revealing Guardian is about to join the Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity (Gain) to provide better support to the business, colleagues, and longer-term to inform the way the firm thinks about neurodivergence in product design and adviser and consumer experience.
“This conversation started with a number of neurodiverse, mostly dyslexic, members of our team and the adaptations they needed to perform in their careers,” Maclean adds.
“What it quickly highlighted was that the way most firms generally recruit, train, manage, communicate and work with their teams does not support the dyslexic mind, and this represents one in 10 of the population.
“We chose this group having researched a number of options.
“Gain’s membership also counts a number of other insurers, and is a sign to me that the industry is shifting in its thinking.”
But Maclean says ethnic diversity at senior levels across the sector is not yet in line with population mix.
“We need to be thinking about how to promote, encourage and actively help to offset the societal disadvantages faced by some groups. Similarly for people with disabilities, both visible and invisible,” she adds.
Threat from other industries
Axa Health adds it sees its focus on diversity, equity and inclusion as critical to reflecting and serving its customers.
It warned that if changes are not made, the sector as a whole runs the risk of talented and capable people leaving in order to find careers in more inclusive sectors.
“Being inclusive and developing a diverse workforce is obviously better for everyone and benefits the industry by ensuring we’re not missing out on talented, capable and hardworking colleagues, who may bring a fresh and innovative perspective,” the company says.
“Also, importantly, a diverse workforce represents our community as a whole and helps us to better reflect our customers.”