Scot Prov adds Bright Grey's review panel for 'grey area' claims

Bright Grey has increased the scope of its critical illness (CI) claims panel to also cover Scottish Provident policies.

It will cover all grey area claims where the provider feels the claimant's condition is severe enough to warrant a payment but might not be strictly entitled to one under the definitions of the contract.

The move was undertaken as part of the merger of sales and back office teams conducted by the Royal London stablemates.

Prior to the change Scot Prov did not have such a team in place.

Roger Edwards, proposition director for Bright Grey and Scottish provident, told COVER that it gave the provider more flexibility for claims that deserved to be paid.

"It is in the spirit of this product that this person is critically ill but may not meet the exact definitions," he said.

"We can't pay them every time, but these cases are relatively few," he added.

And Edwards explained that bringing the two brands' back office operations closer together made it possible to target different markets with similar base offerings.

This offered the potential for options such as producing a basic low cost plan with the ability to add on extras in a similar process to budget airlines.

However Edwards was unsure as to whether this would prove viable in the adviser space.

He also urged IFAs to take the initiative in promoting themselves and their businesses in the wake of this week's BBC's Panorama programme which exposed poor financial advice by UK banks.

"If I was Unbiased or IFA Promotion I would have jumped all over that and got a different view across," he said.

"The public does have a jaded view of IFAs in general but has a different view of their own.

"Advisers are never going to have the money to match banks' advertising, but advertising in a local paper is fairly affordable and doing it in fitness clubs and groups can work.

"Anybody in their own self employed business is going to benefit from local promotion but most IFAs are not marketers so we would try to help them the best we can too," he added.

Edwards concluded by suggesting IFAs make as much use of social media such as twitter and facebook to engage their local community and not to be afraid of using press releases as well.