Friends Provident has reported that its year-old approach on non-disclosure has helped to reduce the number of declined critical illness (CI) claims by a third in the last year.
The life and pensions firm says that claims declined for non-disclosure are, for the first time, fewer than those declined for breach of policy conditions. From the beginning of 2007, Friends Provident has undertaken to pay a proportion of a CI claim where unrelated non-disclosure had occurred.
Only 6.5 per cent of claims were declined due to non-disclosure last year, which is down on 9.9 per cent the previous year, while 7 per cent were turned down because the policy definition had not been met, this was also down from 8.8 per cent.
Mark Jones, head of protection at Friends Provident, says: "Im delighted that the three pronged approach weve applied to our range of protection products of education, simplification and promoting a culture of fairness, is beginning to pay dividends. The improvement in the number of critical illness claims paid will help increase consumer confidence in protection products."




