Fiona Murphy finds a ‘vibrant' and ‘growing' whole-of-life market compared with its term assurance sister
Meanwhile, as previously mentioned, the ability to pay for long-term care using a whole of life plan is becoming an option insurers are looking at.
VitalityLife launched the first product with AIG Life following suit - it has introduced two new whole of life plans into the market.
AIG Life has launched whole of life policy meaning the insurer previously known as Ageas Protect now offers a complete range of protection policies. Zurich have followed suit with the launch of a whole of life policy with a care component, although it is still being tested and ironed out among select brokers.
Richard Sadler, head of proposition development, retail protection at Zurich: "The policy has been piloted for 9 months now with few distributors.
"We are keeping it relatively small scale and we are keeping that low profile [while we gather feedback.] We are not in a position to do anything [in terms of launching it to the wider market]but we are actively looking at it at the moment. I hope it would be this year but I wouldn't want to promise that."
Sadler pointed out although some of the IHT changes may negatively impact the market, it is also opening it up to a large population of incredibly wealthy people.
He also said, while it is early days for the later-life proposition, it is up to providers to help advisers feel more confident to engage with such products.
Sadler added: "With three providers having these types of plans, you're getting to the stage where we're building a market, now there's 3 and hopefully one or two other insurers may enter the market. I think advisers may feel less nervous as momentum builds."
