Aegon UK has made a number of key changes to the underwriting requirements for both personal and business protection.

It has improved its financial underwriting limits for Business Protection.

The sum assured limits for when an application only is required have been increased across life and CI protection. Customers will no longer have to provide as much financial evidence for sums assured of up to £1.5 million for life protection or £850,000 for CI protection.

Business protection customers will also benefit from increased limits on their immediate cover facility. Aegon now provides immediate cover on sums assured of up to £3.5 million for life and up to £1.5 million for CI protection.

The non-medical limits for routine exercise ECGs have also been significantly increased across both business and personal protection. This means fewer customers will be asked to have an exercise ECG test, so their protection cover will be in place quicker and with less hassle, Aegon claims.

Richard Dallas, group marketing director at Aegon UK said: “These increases to our routine medical and financial limits will save time and reduce inconvenience for advisers and customers alike. This is especially true for business protection customers and those applying for larger sums assured.

“We’ve recently announced our intention to grow our protection business to help close the UK protection gaps (both Personal and Business). Key to this will be our support of intermediaries and this latest innovation announced by our Underwriting team is most welcome. It’s fantastic to see our protection proposition developing and I look forward to this continuing when John Wilkinson joins us next month as Protection Director.”