Abbey Life has become the latest insurer to pull out of the private medical insurance market with th...
Abbey Life has become the latest insurer to pull out of the private medical insurance market with the company no longer conducting new PMI business through IFAs or its direct salesforce, writes Rachel Williams.
The insurer said that its withdrawal from the market stems from problems with systems used by parent company LloydsTSB, the plan's underwriter and administrator. However, Abbey Life expects its absence from the market to be temporary.
Judith Griffith, marketing analyst at Abbey Life, said that the group is set on re-entering the market next year with a new product.
She said: "We are actively looking at the market and evaluating our future." This, she added, involved finding a suitable provider to replace LloydsTSB.
"LloydsTSB introduced a new computer system that was not able to support our product and we did not want to carry on selling a plan that we could not support."
LloydsTSB will continue to service and offer renewals to the 6,000 existing policyholders.
Norwich Union Healthcare is a possible contender to team up with Abbey Life for individual PMI.
Jack Briggs, head of corporate sales for the insurer, said: "We have successfully worked to take over Abbey Life's small group PMI scheme and we are now talking to them about individual business."
The Abbey Life move follows Cornhill's exit from the PMI market in September.
NUH has also entered the battle for Cornhill's business after that group's policyholders were offered a switch to BUPA.
Briggs said that following a number of enquiries from specialist intermediaries NUH decided to come up with a proposition for intermediaries holding Cornhill business.
"We are now saying that if there is sufficient interest from intermediaries we can make deals with them, depending on the size of their portfolio."
For intermediaries with group business, NUH said that it would be prepared to be flexible on commission and premiums.
