A-Day a damp squib but Autumn will see big changes for group risk
Age discrimination legislation coming into effect in Autumn is likely to have a major impact on the group risk market, according to guests at COVER's latest Think Tank.
Debating the challenges the new pension legislation is posing for the group risk market, advisers and insurers agreed that A-Day had largely failed to make a mark on group risk uptake, saying it had not affected sales.
"If we look back nine months before the changes came into effect the market was expecting huge changes when we reached A-Day.
"However, in the end it was almost like a housekeeping exercise with only a few clients making some tweaks," said Jamie Barnes, head of risk at Gissings.
Kareena Morgans, manager of the health and risk team at HSBC Actuaries and Consultants, said A-Day turned out to be a disappointment for the group risk market because advisers were too busy focusing on pensions.
"They have been very focused on the pension side because there were things they had to do to make sure they are compliant.
"And that was quite a lot of work to do and that is why many of them put group risk schemes on the back burner because work was not necessary," she said.
However, the round table delegates all thought that while pension legislation had left the group risk market more or less unchanged, alterations to age discrimination legislation, effective from October, are bound to make a significant difference.
Simon Derby, director of group risk at Lorica Consulting, said: "I would like to see clients in the risk arena value the cover more.
"It has not been featured as it should have, but now we're back in the game with age discrimination soon to come into effect so I think we can capitalise on that."
For full details of the round table debate, see the Think Tank supplement free with this issue.
