market views

Westfield Health has recently released a new product, Hospital Treatment Insurance, aimed at the middle ground between cash plans and PMI. Considering the lengthening of hospital waiting lists, could this be the birth of a third tier to the health insurance...

LifeSearch has recently released a code of conduct it would like all protection sellers to adhere to. Should there be such a code and what does it say about this market that it should originate from an intermediary rather than a provider?

With the launch of the simple products steering group, what should be the focus for its protection element? Is there a hesitation about actually designing products that are simple?

Given the Financial Ombudsman Service's (FOS) desire to see larger caseload contributors paying a greater share of the costs, do you think this heralds a focus on smaller companies well being from regulators?

With white papers due this year on long-term care (Dilnot Review), sickness absence and also the Treasury's work on simple products, how much explicit help (not just macro changes to benefits and the NHS) would you want the government to give the industry?...

With take up of sales in income protection (IP) by advisers so low, reflecting in low consumer sales, what could be done to the product to make it more attractive to IFAs, apart from increased commission?

At the recent COVER Health and Protection Forum, Clive Waller called for greater regulation of back book selling. Do you agree that this would ultimately benefit clients and the market?

At a recent critical illness (CI) conference, it was observed that a lot of the individual market's underwriting problems could be reduced by using a low free cover limit (e.g. £50,000). Would bringing this into line with group business be helpful to...

The internet, new media and social media are continuing to grow in popularity and importance for interacting with people. What should advisers be doing to make the most of these opportunities?

HM Treasury believes simple products by definition should be allowed to be sold without advice.