EDITION 1 | MAY 2021
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Outside of the insurance world , what would you see as fair ? Would you expect to get the best new product available without having to pay the same as a new customer ? No . But would you want to be stuck with your old product because it can be difficult or costly to upgrade ? Also no .
With all other critical illness providers , the definitions people have in their policy when they take it out , are the ones they ’ re stuck with . If improvements are made , then , to benefit , existing policyholders have to cancel their old policy and take out a new one . That penalises them because , as they ’ re older now , they may have to pay more for their existing terms .
Access to improved definitions also relies on a client and their adviser conducting regular reviews , as well as the adviser being up-to-speed with all the latest critical illness definition movements on the market . Not an easy job to take on . However , if the review doesn ’ t happen , and the client has an outdated version of a policy , it might let them down when they come to claim .
At Guardian , we ’ re doing things differently . All our critical illness policies come with a cover upgrade promise , so our existing policyholders don ’ t get left behind when we improve our critical illness definitions . If our critical illness definitions improve , at point of claim we check any
All our critical illness policies come with a cover upgrade promise , so our existing policyholders don ’ t get left behind when we improve our critical illness definitions .
claim against both the definitions your client bought , and the definitions for new customers . And we pay out if the claim is valid under either .
In late 2019 , we made our first critical illness definition improvements – adding three new definitions and improving six existing ones . All our existing customers now benefit from these improvements at no extra cost to them . We emailed all our customers to let them know .
Occasionally , we may introduce changes that we won ’ t automatically upgrade . If this happens , we offer existing customers the chance to pay to add them at the same price we ’ d charge new customers .
At Guardian , our ambition is for every family to have protection that they can truly believe in . Our unique cover upgrade promise is one way we ’ re doing this .
To bring to life our unique cover upgrade promise , we ’ ve created Lee ’ s story . Visit whateveryadviserneedstoknow . com to read Lee ’ s story , and other characters ’ stories , to see why we do things differently at Guardian .
Guardian Financial Services Limited is an appointed representative of Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited . All products are provided by Scottish Friendly .