Caring for our customers
Caring for our customers
As a business, our purpose has always been to offer services and products that support you when you need it most. This, together with the safety of our staff, remains our primary focus during this difficult time.
We are ensuring that Agent hub and OLPC have all the most up to date information for you. This will be the quickest way for you to find any information you need.
If you can’t find the answer to your question online, then our phone lines are open. However - we apologise that your wait time may be longer than usual. And we please ask you not to call us unless you cannot progress your case via our user systems.
Updates
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Important Information
As a business, our purpose has always been to offer services and products that support our customers when they need it most.
This remains our primary focus and we wanted to share some details around our approach to claims at this time.
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Self Serve
We’ve made some improvements to the way we work, making it quicker and easier for you to protect your customers.
Download our handy quick guide on 8 steps to making it easier to do business and our full self serve guide to see how we’ve streamlined our application process – from starting a policy to amending one.We also have lots of information & tools, including short videos, about the case tracking functions in Agent Hub.
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Supporting and servicing our customers
Due to the impact of Covid-19 we are having to change the way we work for a while and ask you not to call us unless you cannot progress your case via our user systems.
We have fewer staff than usual taking calls at the moment and are working as fast as we can to increase this number through equipping them to work from home. In parallel, we have taken measures to ensure that we are able to support you via our online systems including OLPC and Adviser Centre.
We are still very much open for business and want to support you as fast and effectively as we can and we really appreciate your understanding and patience at this challenging time.
We have amended the opening hours of our call centres. We are now open between the hours of 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday. Of course, our user systems are available to you 24 hours, and these will be the best and most efficient method of finding information you might need at this time.
We will continue to work every day to support you and your customers.
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COVID-19 claims
As a business, we’re committed to paying claims and supporting our customers during difficult times – after all, that’s why we exist.
As well as our commitment to paying claims, we continually review our claims and underwriting process to ensure we’re providing our customers with the best service during this difficult time.
Read our news article to find out some of the enhancements we’ve made recently.
Our Covid-19 Claims Statistics
Download our claims summary for more information on the claims we’ve paid.
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Updates to our Covid-19 underwriting approach
Ensuring as many people as possible can access the cover they need
As of 14 June 2021, we’re lifting the majority of underwriting restrictions and will no longer be asking people if they are self-isolating due to Covid-19, or if they have had direct contact with someone who had, or was thought to have Covid-19. The questions around any recent diagnosis of Covid-19 or recent Covid-19 related symptoms have been retained but have now been moved to be part of the main application.
In addition, the Covid-19 related restrictions on the maximum ratings available that could be applied on certain conditions during the pandemic will all be lifted from 14 June 2021. Further updates to our underwriting approach mean that for Life cover a customer who previously had Covid-19 can apply for cover as soon as they can confirm they have made a full recovery, and those applying for Critical Illness and Income Protection can apply 30 days after full recovery. Previously customers had to wait up to 90 days after recovery.
“We regularly review our underwriting approach based on the latest medical and Government guidance and are therefore lifting the majority of underwriting restrictions that we have had in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We have taken a nuanced approach to underwriting throughout the pandemic with the aim of offering the maximum number of people cover. Our updated approach is good news for customers and will allow cover to be given to those who previously would have been postponed due to Covid-19 diagnosis or symptoms.” David Banks, Underwriting & Claims Director, at Legal & General
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Medical Screening
Virtual screenings
We are pleased to announce following the success of offering virtual screening to Life applicants. We have now extended this option to include Critical Illness applications. We will offer this service where possible based on meeting the correct criteria.
- Virtual screenings – will be used to progress life and critical illness applications, where face to face is not available.
- GP Exams – will be used where appropriate as a result of face to face or virtual nurse screenings not being available.
You can still check your client’s cases using the progress bar on agent hub if this states ‘MSS awaiting a nurse appointment’, please be assured we are reviewing these as quickly as possible.
Face to Face screenings
Please be mindful Covid-19 is still having an impact in certain areas of the country due to nurse shortages and local lockdown restrictions.
Face to face screenings will continue to be available during the period of lockdown across the UK. However, where face to face screenings are not possible we will consider the use of virtual screenings to progress life only applications. Where face to face or virtual nurse screenings are not available, we will arrange a doctor face to face examination.
We’ve adopted the above approach with immediate effect.
Thank you for your continued support. -
Digital Trust process for existing policies
Introduction
As the impact of Covid-19 evolves, so too will our process. We are working hard to identify new and innovative solutions to ensure we are supporting our customers through the most challenging times of their lives and enabling more people to have access to vital protection cover.
As part of this work, we have listened to our trusted partners and customers and introduced a new digital approach for our existing customers to place their policies in trust. Our trust forms are required to be physically signed and witnessed and we recognise that this is simply not possible, or safe, for many people at this time.
We have provided an alternative digital solution where trusts may be established without requiring a witness signature.
This will give intermediaries another excellent opportunity to contact customers whose policies are not currently in trust to offer guidance and support when many may be in need of valuable financial advice at this challenging time.
How will it work?
We have created a simple form which can be completed and emailed back to us at trusts@landg.com with no need for a physical signature. This new form is designed to be used with existing single life, family protection policies (excluding TELIP plans). For customers with email access, this will be the quickest and most efficient method of submission.
For those customers who don’t have an email, we can email you a version that can be signed by the customer and sent back to us. You can contact your account manager who will be happy to email this version of the form to you. Unfortunately, due to the impact of Covid-19, we are experiencing some delays in processing posted forms. We would ask for your patience and understanding at this challenging time as our teams work hard to process all information received as quickly as possible.
More information and frequently asked questions can be found below:
Digital Discretionary Trust Guide
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60 day grace period for payments
If a customer is suffering from financial hardship, we would always encourage them to contact us or their financial adviser to explore their options and how we might support them. As part of our response to the impact of COVID-19, we are clarifying and enhancing the payment grace period that all Retail Protection customers have access to. This grace period means that if a customer were to miss or cancel their payment, they will remain covered by their policy for 60 days from the first missed premium (this is the day in the month that the premium is collected from the customer’s account (not their policy anniversary date), subject to their policy’s terms and conditions.
Within 60 days, if regular payments are restarted and the missing premiums are paid*, there will be no change to the customer’s cover or their usual premiums, and no need for them to provide new information regarding health or lifestyle.
Alternatively customer may be able to take a Payment Holiday**. A Payment Holiday lets customer take a three month break from paying their monthly premiums. They’ll remain covered by their policy, subject to their policy terms and conditions, and we’ll collect the three months’ premiums due when the payment holiday ends. If a customer chooses to take a Payment Holiday, when it ends the 60 day grace period will not apply.
We would advise customers who may find themselves in financial hardship to contact their financial adviser, or visit our website to explore how they might maintain their cover. Due to the impact of COVID-19, our contact centres are currently receiving a high volume of calls, and there may be delays in answering customer calls. The quickest and most efficient way of getting the information customers may need will be via our website.
*Customers can choose to repay the missed premiums by debit card or by credit card, or by asking us to collect them in their next Direct Debit payment.
**Eligibility criteria applies
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Payment Holiday
If a customer is suffering from financial hardship, we would always encourage them to contact us or you, as their financial adviser, to explore their options and how we might support them. As part of our response to the impact of COVID-19, customers may be able to take a Payment Holiday*. A Payment Holiday lets customers take a three month break from paying their monthly premiums provided their payments are up to date or provided they’ve only missed one payment. Customers will remain covered by their policy during this period, subject to their policy terms and conditions.
We’ll collect the three months premium due when the payment holiday ends. Their regular monthly premiums will automatically restart at the end of the three months. We’ll collect the amount owed around the same time as their next monthly premium. This may show as one payment or two separate payments within a few days of each other, on their bank statements. If the customer prefers, they can contact us at least 16 days in advance and pay the 3 months’ premiums using their credit or debit card.