2nd November 2009
Unum, one of the UK’s leading income protection providers, has announced today the roll out of its ‘intelligent’ electronic underwriting system, UnumOnline, for financial advisers. The system has been carefully designed to simplify the application process for advisers and enable them to get their clients insured with immediate effect, where possible. Unum anticipates that more than 80% of underwriting decisions will be able to be made immediately, without the adviser or client having to obtain any additional information from the applicant’s doctor, regardless of the amount of benefit being requested.
The new system is designed to complement the recent launch of Unum’s website tailored specifically for financial advisers, unum4advisers.co.uk.
Linton Penman, Head of Retail Sales and Marketing at Unum said: “Having recently been voted Best Individual Income Protection Provider in the 2009 ‘Health Insurance’ awards, we are delighted to unveil UnumOnline, demonstrating our commitment to supporting advisers by continually enhancing our product and service proposition. The recent launch of our dedicated adviser website unum4advisers.co.uk, and our 24-hours-a-day assistance programme, Unum LifeWorks, are just some of the most recent examples of this. Now we have made it even easier for advisers to apply for our products.
“Many advisers complain that the underwriting process for income protection is often time-consuming and they and their customers can be disappointed when, having gone through the process, their application is rated or even declined. Getting to the right premium first time in matter of minutes represents a tremendous leap forward in the world of income protection “, he added .
The new system has been designed by Unum to save advisers and clients time by limiting unnecessary questioning. This is achieved by asking a number of high level questions based on Unum’s bio-psychosocial underwriting model. Further questions are only prompted if certain ‘flag answers’ are provided by the client in first instance. As a result, it will take considerably less time to complete an online interview compared to the traditional paper application method. The new service is also flexible enough to enable advisers to suspend and save partially completed application forms, which can then be completed at a later date.
Linton Penman adds: “UnumOnline maximises the benefits of our innovative underwriting approach. This focuses not only on the risk of illness or injury occurring, but also how customers are likely to respond to incapacity in the future, allowing us to fully underwrite around 80% of customers without additional information.”
The new online service will automatically confirm the original premium quoted, or add any ratings or exclusions. Cover can go ‘in force’ at the touch of a button.
UnumOnline will be available to advisers initially through The Exchange and Webline with other portals to follow shortly.
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