To: Angela Faherty, editor From: Alan Lakey, partner, Highclere Financial Services, Hemel Hempstead...
To: Angela Faherty, editor
From: Alan Lakey, partner, Highclere Financial Services, Hemel Hempstead
The triumphant noises emanating from Virgin and Scottish Widows fail to mask the reality that The Big V cancer policy is much ado about nothing.
As a marketing puff it ensures plenty of column inches but once you peer beneath the hyperbole and bluster you find a policy which has a reviewable cost, a reviewable cancer definition and a subjective claims process.
The claim that it is 45% cheaper than a standard critical illness (CI) policy is no great surprise when you realise it is more than 45% less likely to meet a claim than a standard CI plan.
Any policy which is variable at the insurer's behest and subjective based on the insurer's whim deserves to wither and die.
As with their previous plan, there is a 90-day moratorium on claims, a tactic that seems unnecessary given that medical underwriting takes place.
Personally, I hope it is an abject failure and my only solace is the knowledge that, as Virgin does not work with advisers, it won't be us getting the flak for a deformed product sale.
Of course, as Virgin does not provide financial advice it will be off the hook too. What do you know?
