Guardian has relaxed its eligibility criteria for life and critical illness policies in a move designed to make its protection products more inclusive and accessible.
The insurer has reduced the residency and GP registration requirements for applicants across its Life Protection, Life Essentials, Critical Illness Protection, and Combined Life and Critical Illness Protection ranges.
From today, applicants need only to have lived in the UK for the past six months and have the right to remain, as well as being currently registered with a UK doctor. Previously, Guardian required applicants to have lived in the UK and been registered with a GP for at least two years.
The changes will not apply to the insurer’s income protection products, which retain the existing criteria that all applicants must be UK residents.
Hilary Banks, chief commercial officer at 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 at Openwork, added: “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 two years a better range of covers to choose from for their protection recommendations.”
The new criteria take immediate effect for all quotes and applications. Advisers with clients who were previously ineligible will be able to reapply under the updated terms.
