Zurich UK has enhanced its income protection proposition following consultation with both advisers and customers.
The insurer said the new product is designed to provide improved coverage plus greater certainty and clarity for customers at the point of claim.
It includes a gross income replacement ratio covering 65% of the first £60,000 of income and 45% of anything above. These ratios allow lower earners to continue to be offered strong replacements and improve Zurich’s offering for mid and high earners.
Other product features are maximum and minimum benefit guarantees to help manage the risk of over insurance, rehabilitation support to help customers with their recovery, and sick pay matching for a wide range of medical professionals.
Zurich said the product design and update is guided by advisers and customers’ research.
The insurer said it spoke to advisers to ascertain which product features, benefits and options would be of most value, while balancing this need with cost.
The proposition aligns to the research findings and embodies the principles of the Consumer Duty, it added.
The research also showed a desire for sales materials that help advisers to position benefits and features to customers more effectively.
Zurich said it carried out in-depth interviews to test the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) and Key Fact Documents (KFDs) with consumers.
This helped to establish understanding of Income Protection, payout amounts, payout timings and how guarantees work.
The insurer noted that it has improved its materials and added situational examples to KFDs to help illustrate how certain guarantees work to help with overall customer understanding prior to purchasing cover. Previously, these examples were only included in T&Cs.
An animated video was also developed to help advisers demonstrate the value of income protection to customers. It shows the difference in outcomes for someone who does take income protection versus someone who doesn’t after suffering a stroke.
Zurich’s new income protection builds on improvements made to its critical illness and accelerate product enhancements over the last 18 months.
The insurer now offers a comprehensive, end-to-end menu solution with market-leading options, which allow advisers to meet their customers’ needs efficiently in one place.
Louise Colley, director of retail protection at Zurich, said: “We really wanted to deliver a product that truly meets the needs of our customers and adapts to people’s changing work patterns and incomes.
“By working with advisers to make changes that are relevant, we’ve created a proposition that supports customers with their life choices. Any cover needs to be reactive to changing scenarios and provide certainty.
“The sales support materials we’ve created are also designed to be really clear and help advisers to understand our features and benefits and who they are designed for, helping them to focus on the benefits of most value to each individual customer.”
