Blogs

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3D - More or less? Peter Barnett demonstrates that knowledge is power

Blogs | 12/04/11

Peter Barnett demonstrates that knowledge is power – if used in the right way Recently I watched some of the Masters Golf on TV through 3D and in High Definition and it struck me that while we are getting a sharper clearer view of sporting events, it is often of less and less substance. However looking through rose coloured glasses is not exclusively confined to TV watchers. We in financial services may be taking a very one eyed rosy view of our target market if we treat them as a homogeneous group with similar needs, aims and aspirations. This Coalition…
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Helen Tilley of Kennedy’s Law comments on the recent Gender Directive

Blogs | 05/04/11

No apologies for raising the European Court of Justice ruling of early March in the Test-Achats case! It created quite a stir within the industry and amongst customers. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the objective of the Gender Directive (2004/113/EC) in the context of insurance was to have unisex premiums and benefits. The effect of the Test-Achats case is to ban the derogation in art. 5(2) of the EU Gender Directive from 21 December 2012. Art. 5(2) had been sensible because, in broad terms, it permitted the UK to legislate so that gender could be taken into account when pricing…
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Stephen Walker says Consultant Fees Guidelines are a potential PR disaster for PMI

Blogs | 29/03/11

Stephen Walker suggests that “Consultant Fees Guidelines are a potential PR disaster for PMI” The PMI industry has, historically, always struggled to contain the cost of treatment in order to maintain affordable premiums. Insurers claimed that there was a tendency for service providers (hospitals, consultants, anesthetists, etc.), to inflate their charges when an insurer was paying for a policyholder’s treatment. This was always denied by the providers, despite evidence that this might actually be true. Over the last few years there has been a growing trend for the larger insurers to adopt a system of Consultant Fees Guidelines as a…
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Alan Tyler: How to reduce the income protection gap in one easy lesson

Blogs | 22/03/11

Alan Tyler ponders an important question: How to reduce the income protection gap in one easy lesson The proposal from the think-tank Demos that Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) be replaced by Income Protection insurance, is one of the most positive ideas about the role of protection insurance for many a long day and offers the opportunity to make a dent in at least one of Swiss Re’s protection gaps. Where an employee is absent from work for a minimum of 4 days, SSP is paid by employers for a period of up to 28 weeks. If the employer’s total SSP…
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Remember all the fuss about fox-hunting? I reckon the ECJ thing is much the same.

Blogs | 18/03/11

Lucian Camp considers the impact of the gender directive by the European Court of Justice. You’ll remember that not so long ago there was a great deal of fuss about fox-hunting – especially, I have to say, from those who enjoyed chasing our bushy-tailed friends and those who made a living out of enabling them to do so. One reason for the high volume of protest was, pretty obviously, that the protesters felt very strongly about it. The other, I think, was that they thought a dividing line was being moved for no good, clear or definable reason: one minute…
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