Zurich enhances Income Protection proposition

Zurich UK announces a range of enhancements to its Income Protection proposition. This follows extensive research to uncover what’s truly needed to meet the needs of both advisers and customers. 

The comprehensive build is designed to provide improved coverage plus greater certainty and clarity for customers at the point of claim.

The new product includes: 

• A gross income replacement ratio covering 65% of the first £60,000 of income and 45% of anything above. These ratios allow lower earners to continue to be offered strong replacements and improves Zurich’s offering for mid and high earners.  
• Maximum and Minimum Benefit Guarantees to help manage the risk of over insurance and provides security as not everyone has certainty of their income levels.  
• Rehabilitation support to help customers with their recovery and ongoing financial support through a Return to Work Package and linked claims. 
• Sick pay matching for a wide range of medical professionals whose sick pay arrangement aligns to the NHS structure, irrespective of how many years of service they have completed.  
• Four features that help protect customers who fall ill when they aren’t working – Sabbatical Cover, Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Benefit, Own Occupation Guarantee and House Person Benefit. 
• More certainty around how we assess income at claim, particularly those who fall ill in the first year of a new job. 
• Fixed payments under the optional Income Protection Enhanced module along with improved coverage to help meet customer needs.  
• Wide range of flexibility options allowing customers to adapt their cover in line with changes in their needs and circumstances. 

Product design guided by adviser and customer research  

Zurich UK spoke to advisers to ascertain which product features, benefits and options would be of most value, whilst balancing this need with cost. The proposition aligns to research findings and embodies the principles of Consumer Duty. 

The research also showed a desire for sales materials which help advisers to position benefits and features to customers more effectively.  

Alongside this, in-depth interviews were carried out to test the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) and Key Fact Documents (KFDs) with consumers. This helped to establish understanding of Income Protection, payout amounts, payout timings and how guarantees work. As a result, Zurich has improved its materials and added situational examples to KFDs to help illustrate how certain guarantees work to help with overall customer understanding prior to purchasing cover. Previously these examples were only included in T&Cs.  

An animated video was also developed to help advisers demonstrate the value of income protection to customers. It shows the difference in outcomes for someone who does take income protection versus someone who doesn’t after suffering a stroke.  

Zurich’s new Income Protection builds on improvements made to its Critical Illness and Accelerate product enhancements over the last 18 months. The insurer now offers a comprehensive, end-to-end menu solution with market-leading options, that allows advisers to meet their customers’ needs efficiently in one place.  

Commenting on the launch, Louise Colley, Director of Retail Protection, said:  

“We really wanted to deliver a product that truly meets the needs of our customers and adapts to people’s changing work patterns and incomes. By working with advisers to make changes that are relevant, we’ve created a proposition that supports customers with their life choices. Any cover needs to be reactive to changing scenarios and provide certainty.  

“The sales support materials we’ve created are also designed to be really clear and help advisers to understand our features and benefits and who they are designed for, helping them to focus on the benefits of most value to each individual customer.”