Unum exits individual critical illness market

Unum has ceased writing new business in the individual critical illness (CI) market.

The provider said its individual arm will now concentrate solely on the income protection (IP) market

Linton Penman, head of retail marketing art Unum said: "It is safe to say that the volume of CI business was small largely because it was a pure standalone CI policy without life cover. So we were a niche section of the CI market. Sales were low and it was not a tough decision to make."

Unum stopped marketing and quoting CI in early April and the last of these cases are now on risk.

"We have basically been clearing up what was in the pipeline, those waiting for medical evidence for example, and are now finished writing business." said Penman.

"We are now fully focused on well priced IP that is really easy to apply for. A lot of brokers are reluctant to sell IP because they think it is difficult to underwrite, so we are making huge strides in simplifying the underwriting process.

He added: "To avoid confusion, we still offer CI on the group side and have no intention of dropping that."

Unum will continue to administer its individual CI back book.

Matt Morris, senior policy adviser at LifeSearch, was disappointed at the news but not surprised by the decision.

"They had a good product but didn't really have many sales, so its not really surprising they've dropped out," he said.

"It is a shame as they did have an interesting CI product, but from our point of view, its no bad thing if they're going to keep on improving the IP product."