IFAs should ask medical questions - Werth

According to Martin Werth: "If an IFA is qualified to give advice, he is more than qualified to ask the underwriting questions."

Advisers often opt against making even basic medical enquiries because they may be liable if any mistakes surface at the claim stage. Consumers may also feel uncomfortable disclosing personal details.

But Werth says asking the "right question in the right way" will ensure advisers and their clients remain protected.

Fortis Life UK, and other insurers, provides guidelines and a list of questions on its website for advisers to relay to applicants.

"Is ‘Have you ever had cancer?' such a difficult question to ask?" he says. "We say read the question and listen to the answer.

"Don't ask things like: ‘You've never had cancer, have you? Simply read the question."

Last week, protection IFA Peter Chadborn said he would only select insurers offering Big T tele-underwriting unless there was an overwhelming case for going elsewhere.

The co-founder of CBK Colchester said other forms of underwriting offer too much of a non-disclosure and compliance risk.

Big T tele-underwriting enables advisers to separate themselves from the interview and medical aspects of a protection application by passing these responsibilities on to an insurer or third party.

But Werth says most applicants qualify to go on risk almost immediately and do not need to undergo a lengthy underwriting process.

"There is no point in putting people all the way through an application process only to let them know what we could have told them at the beginning," he says. "I don't support moving the process elsewhere simply to avoid the risk yourself.

"I think a lot of online processes are simply the paper-based procedure copied online, rather than a whole new, revamped system, so I understand that criticism.

"But we're so busy thinking: is it a problem for the IFA or the insurer when, every time, it is a problem for the client."