Shepherds Friendly has launched its new ‘Income Protection (Simplified Application)’ process for short-term cover applications.
Shepherds Friendly is an award-winning mutual society, established in 1826. Simplifying the application process and underwriting is part of a wider strategy to offer more efficient and streamlined application processes to advisers, whilst providing convenience for their clients.
While the mutual’s Income Protection product remains unchanged, the simplified application, launched on Monday May 16, 2022, is now live and available exclusively to advisers.
It offers an alternative application route based on moratorium underwriting and, with just seven medical questions to answer, it could see advisers get cover for their clients in less than five minutes when terms are met.
Rod Jones, head of sales & operations at ActiveQuote, said: “It’s great to see Shepherds Friendly continue to innovate and make income protection more accessible, providing cover that is critical when looking at insurance and financial planning as a whole.
“ActiveQuote understands the importance of income protection and working with strategic insurers like Shepherds Friendly will ensure that we drive the market forwards.”
Antony Uttley, chief sales officer at Shepherds Friendly, said: “Our new simplified application is a really exciting development which will make applying for our Income Protection more efficient than ever.
“Advisers will now have a choice between the new simplified underwriting route or the traditional underwriting route, which we call the Full Health & Lifestyle Application, within the application. This means that they can make a decision on which application is more suitable based on their clients’ individual circumstances.”
Both routes are available to all advisers and the simplified application can be chosen when selling new income protection plans to clients who:
- Require short-term cover (one or two years)
- Require a maximum benefit that does not exceed £33,600 per annum
- Have a BMI of 34 or less
- Do not smoke more than 12 cigarettes per day
- Do not consume more than 25 units of alcohol per week, have never been dependent on alcohol or been advised to reduce their intake
- Have not used cannabis within the last year and do not intend to
- Have never used any recreational or non-prescription drugs and do not intend to
Income protection clients from the simplified application route will have access to the same benefits as those who go through the fully underwritten route, including free access to Nuffield Health’s Virtual GP service and discounted gym memberships.
