Changes apply to Guardian’s range of life and critical illness covers
Guardian has announced changes to its policy terms and conditions that widen who can apply for its life and critical illness covers. The updates relate to residency requirements and the length of time an applicant needs to have been registered with a UK doctor.
From today, applicants for Guardian’s Life Protection, Life Essentials, Critical Illness Protection, or Combined Life and Critical Illness Protection must:
- Have lived in the UK for the past 6 months and have the right to remain.
- Be currently registered with a UK doctor.
These updated criteria replace the previous requirement for applicants to have lived in the UK and been registered with a UK GP for at least 2 years.
The changes don’t apply to Income Protection, which retains the existing criteria. All applicants must still be UK residents.
Hilary Banks, Chief Commercial Officer, Guardian said: “As a challenger brand, we’re always listening to adviser feedback. Our advice partners consistently tell us they love our award-winning products and want to recommend us to even more of their clients. One thing that was holding them back was our previous residency criteria, which was a barrier for clients who had recently moved to the UK. We’ve now made a change, making our protection more inclusive and accessible to more people.”
Paul Shearman, Proposition Director, Openwork, said: “We welcome this seemingly small, but important, change by Guardian which makes it easier for clients who’ve moved to the UK to apply for their life and critical illness cover. In our view, this approach to residency is fairer and more inclusive. It also gives advisers with clients who’ve moved here within the last 2 years a better range of covers to choose from for their protection recommendations.”
Guardian’s new criteria will be applied to any new quotes or applications from today. Advisers with clients who didn’t meet the old criteria, will be able to reapply from today if they wish. Full details of the updated policy terms and conditions are on Guardian’s website.
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Notes to editors:
Press enquiries to Natalie Robinson, 07789 501146, natalie.robinson@guardianfs.co.uk.
Guardian Financial Services is an appointed representative of Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.
All products are provided by Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited and we have an agreement with them to underwrite and issue the protection policies we distribute through the UK intermediary channel.
As an appointed representative of Scottish Friendly Assurance Society Limited, Guardian Financial Services Limited is the market-facing brand under which we promote our proposition and engage with advisers.
Background to Guardian Financial Services, owned by Gryphon Group Holdings
Guardian, the life and protection insurance business, launched in 2018 and pledged to grow the protection market. The brand promise of ‘Life. Made Better.’ reflects the company’s commitment to rethink and reinvent protection for the better; making sure customers get cover that’s easier to understand, simple to buy and designed to never let them down.
Guardian’s business partners
Gryphon Group Holdings is majority owned by Punter Southall Group as the largest equity capital investor. Guardian partners with UnderwriteMe for its Underwriting Engine, Liss Systems, the UK arm of Nasdaq-listed EXL, for its policy administration technology, and Space, for its front-end technology, branding and marketing. Guardian’s reinsurance partners are Hannover Re, Gen Re and Swiss Re.