“Work across the industry, with advisers and our customers, to simplify claims and stress the importance of sharing as much information as possible when buying a policy, is paying off - with fewer claims being declined.
“The difference that these payments make to our customers’ lives often mean their being able to focus on their recovery while their finances are taken care of -instead of the burden of financial worries brought about through being seriously ill.”
Mr Hamilton added: “There has been an industry-wide effort to really look at the claims records we have received, and to do a lot to reinforce importance of disclosure.
“The perception is that those nasty insurers wont pay out because they haven’t been told everything, but this is a simplified argument, there are cases when someone has deliberately not given us the information we need to make a fair assesment, but this is very much in the minority.”
A key role in improving the understanding of protection is by engaging with advisers, according to Mr Hamilton.
While Zurich has promoted the Life Navigator and online tools and supporting material to specifically target consumers and help them engage with all facets of protection, it also aims to further develop relationships with protection advisers and to help them build their knowledge on protection as part of their advice proposition.
Mr Hamilton said: “We work with the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Personal Finance Society to support their protection training intitiatives, and work closely with both specialist protection advisers and newcomers to the sector to help enhance their propositions.
“To enable this we have a a great team of consultants out on the roads undertaking presentations around the country.
“Our wesbite www.zurich4protection.co.uk also delivers an invaluable resource for advisers, offering eductation materials, videos and case studies on how to present yourself as a protection adviser.”
The site covers all aspects of family and mortgage protection, critical ilness, business protection, relevant life and IHT planning.
Mr Hamilton said: “On the critical illness side, the site has case studies which study the impact payments have on the lives of policy holders.
“It also offer a great depth of information on relevant life policies, which can often proivide the bridge for advisers between personal finance clients and corporate .
For business protection, a lot of advisers can be reticent when it comes to gaining credibility with directors of small businesses.
“However, Our business assurance tool provides advisers with a set of the right questions to ask, and creates a list of recommendations for them.
“The benefit to the adviser, especially independent advisers, is that it doesnt specifically recommend Zurich products – it’s a completely an independent resource, but once they have thjose recommendations they can calculate and identify the potential business protection needs of their client.”
