Royal London has made further improvements to its digital services by extending its online trust into the Whole of Life (WOL) application journey.
By extending its signature-free trusts process, the mutual aimed to make the process easier, more efficient, and allow advisers to complete the process in one go.
As well as the extension of online trusts, Royal London launched a new discretionary trust form that is easier to administer and claim on.
The new form replaces four existing discretionary trusts, combining them into one; online or paper, the same form can be used for both joint and single life cases, with or without critical illness.
The online journey does not require signatures from customers, trustees or witnesses.
New features to improve customer outcomes and prevent foreseeable harm have been added. The most significant is the addition of cohabitees as beneficiaries.
Trustee administration at claim was reduced by including payment direct to beneficiaries as a more prominent option, avoiding the need for trustees to register the trust if the claim is not for death, as well as speeding up payment to the bereaved.
Jennifer Gilchrist, protection specialist at Royal London, said: “Trust and beneficiary nomination developments are high on our agenda for digital enablement of advisers for new and existing customers.
“Having both solutions will help deliver the best outcomes for clients and their loved ones, especially when it comes to claims.
“This is particularly relevant to cohabitees, the fastest growing family unit in the UK, who can be excluded from death benefits without the right planning in place.
“Including this group provides one of the broadest selection of beneficiaries in the market.”
Ruth Gilbert of Insuring Change added: “Trusts and contractual beneficiary nomination are complementary solutions to the problems which life cover claimants can face if the direction of death benefits has been left to chance.
“It’s great to see Royal London put trusts on an equal footing to beneficiary nomination for ensuring cohabiting partners are not excluded.”
