The insurance industry has set up a lobbying body to promote the potential of group protection schem...
The insurance industry has set up a lobbying body to promote the potential of group protection schemes as vehicles to forward the Government's welfare reform plans, writes Robyn Hall.
Founder members of the body, called Group Risk Insurance Development (GRID), include Zurich Life, Swiss Re Life & Health, Munich Re, ERC Frankona, William M Mercer, and Royal & SunAlliance.
GRID wants to take the message to Westminster that group risk benefits, including group life and group income protection, are an ideal way of helping Government achieve its objectives on welfare reform.
Ken Richart, group risk specialist at reassurer Swiss Re and GRID secretary, said: "We have been hiding our light under a bushel for too long. Group risk is
a valuable benefit that employees appreciate. When a business invests in its employees it realises just how valuable they are.
"Group protection offers a genuinely cost-effective vehicle for implementing some of the Government plans for welfare reform. And yet remarkably few employers are aware that it even exists, or of its advantages, and the number of employees covered is a fraction of the potential."
The group believes there is a need to raise the market profile and to promote the potential of group cover. Other areas of focus include the standardising of product terminology and working closer with employer and employee organisations.
Richart said: "If you make things complicated people switch off. We will be liaising closely with other business organisations in our targeting of Government and in the long term we would like to see some representation in the employer and employee group, possibly in a liaison capacity. We feel we offer excellent products and - in the climate of welfare reform - products whose time have now come."
