Wiltshire Friendly Society is targeting the small Group Income Protection market, after an adjustment to the society's rules.
The Society, which has Holloway plans sold to individuals through a direct sales force as its core product, intends to participate in the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Group IP market, with sales through IFAs and General Insurance Brokers.
John Sanders, chief executive of the Society, says: "We are a niche player and feel this is a niche we can participate in. We have written a few schemes already and are confident we can take this to a wider market."
The Wiltshire's expansion plans include approaching the major IFA networks, with a view to getting on their panels.
The product is aimed firmly at small groups, perhaps not economical for bigger players to cover. the plan has a nominal minimum of five lives, although one of the test cases was for two.
Deferred periods of as low as four weeks are allowed, as are limited payout terms or reduction terms. Employees have the option to increase the terms, or top up policies, taken out by their employers on an individual basis, while group underwritten.
Partial benefit payments are also covered, for example, in the case of an employee returning to work after illness at a lower income.
"Our approach is to look at all cases individually and to see if we could cover it," says Sanders.
