Abbey for Intermediaries will announce details of its declined critical illness (CI) claims in its next claims paid sales aid, writes Johanna Gornitzki.
The aid, which is due for release in August, shows that the insurer refused to pay out one in seven of its CI claims last year.
Latest figures released by the Glasgow-based insurer showed that 52% of the 128 declined claims were rejected due to non-disclosure of material facts, while 45% were turned down because they failed to meet the definitions.
Abbey for Intermediaries is the second UK insurer to publicise details of its declined CI claims data. In April, Standard Life became the first provider to do so by revealing that it had declined 88 of its 442 CI claims between November 2003 and November 2004.
However, Sue Wilkinson, head of life and health propositions at Abbey for Intermediaries, denied the provider's move came as a result of Standard Life's announcement.
"We have had plans to publish declined claims for a while. However, Standard Life got there first and I say well done to them," she said.
The announcement comes as demands for declined claims information increases in the IFA community. Peter Chadborn, financial adviser at Chadborn Baker & Kearle, applauded Abbey for Intermediaries' decision and urged other providers to follow suit. "If one company can do it, I don't see any reason why the rest can't. If a company wants to be taken seriously in the protection market, this is something they should consider," he said.
However, Chadborn does not believe the information should be available to everyone. "It would be great if advisers could get hold of this type of information but I am not sure if it is a great idea to make it available to the public as it may only add to the bad press critical illness cover has experienced recently," he said.
Abbey for Intermediaries has also announced that it paid out 801 CI claims at a cost of £65,192,105 in 2004.
