Well, it has certainly been an eventful start to the year. Supermarkets seem to have gone doolally f...
Well, it has certainly been an eventful start to the year. Supermarkets seem to have gone doolally for a share of the protection and health insurance pie, with Asda teaming up with protection-only adviser firm LifeSearch and Tesco launching private medical insurance in association with Axa PPP Healthcare.
Meanwhile, behind closed doors, the industry and The Treasury have held talks about the future of pension term assurance (PTA). And while experts remain tight-lipped on what has been discussed, we can reveal that the affair is unlikely to be a long drawn out one, as the Government had decided to reach a decision by the end of January.
But while the PTA debacle rumbles on, the news that European insurance giant Fortis is likely to enter the life market has come as the biggest surprise. COVER has discovered that the insurer is conducting a review of its options in the UK life market, and that Martin Werth, a former protection specialist at Munich Re, has been employed by the firm solely to look at these opportunities.
If this happens, it would create a great opportunity for the sector. As with the launch of Virgin Money's cancer-only cover, new entrants and offerings are vital for the protection market's survival - in particular as many experts predict plenty of consolidations in the next few years, leaving the sector with a shrinking number of providers.
Following the launch of our Promoting Protection campaign last month our office has been flooded with responses and a lot of firms have already signed up - if you haven't already, please do so now by going to www.promotingprotection.co.uk. This is only the beginning. Campaign supporters will, for example, be meeting the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance and Financial Services on 27 March to gain political backing.
Johanna Gornitzki, editor
