LV= has cut the length of time it takes to complete protection business sold through IFAs.

The protection provider says that over the past year the average time to process a protection application, including critical illness, income protection and life cover, has reduced by over 20%, from 17 days to 13 days.

61% of all protection applications from IFAs are completed in five days or less from the day the application is received, LV= says.

Its application processing time has reduced due to improvements in its risk recognition capability. LV= uses telephone interviewing and has now reduced the average length of each interview to around 15 minutes.

LV= has also improved its underwriting service by collating more evidence up-front and introducing new medical underwriting limits. These changes mean that fewer applications now warrant a general practitioner’s report (GPR). In 2008, 18% of LV=’s protection applications required a full GPR – this has since fallen to 7.6%.

Mark Jones , LV= head of protection said: “Our in-house team of underwriters work with an invaluable team of nurses and health professionals and are dedicated to ensuring that placing business with LV= is as easy as possible for IFAs.