Guardian has announced changes to its policy terms and conditions that expand who can apply for its life and critical illness covers, making them more inclusive and accessible to a wider range of people living in the UK.
The updates apply to Guardian’s Life Protection, Life Essentials, Critical Illness Protection, and Combined Life and Critical Illness Protection products.
From today, applicants must have lived in the UK for the past six months, have the right to remain, and be currently registered with a UK doctor.
These new requirements replace the previous rule that applicants must have lived in the UK and been registered with a UK GP for at least two years.
The updated eligibility criteria do not apply to Income Protection, which will continue to follow the existing residency rules. All applicants must still be UK residents.
Hilary Banks, chief commercial officer at Guardian, said: “As a challenger brand, we’re always listening to adviser feedback. Our advice partners consistently tell us they love our award-winning products and want to recommend us to even more of their clients.
“One thing that was holding them back was our previous residency criteria, which was a barrier for clients who had recently moved to the UK. We’ve now made a change, making our protection more inclusive and accessible to more people.”
Paul Shearman, proposition director at Openwork, added: “We welcome this seemingly small, but important, change by Guardian which makes it easier for clients who’ve moved to the UK to apply for their life and critical illness cover.
“In our view, this approach to residency is fairer and more inclusive. It also gives advisers with clients who’ve moved here within the last two years a better range of covers to choose from for their protection recommendations.”
