"We’re proud to be taking a lead in this area with our cover upgrade promise which Guardian brought to market in 2018."
- Rachael Welsh, Head of Marketing at Guardian
Of those surveyed (5,000), less than one in eight (8%) said they’d expect definition improvements to only be available to new customers, and a similar number (9%) said they’d expect them to only be available to existing customers.
Yet, Guardian Financial Services (Guardian) is the only protection company to offer a cover upgrade promise within its Critical Illness (CI) plan – stating that if Guardian improves its CI definitions and it’s possible to given them to a policyholder for free, it will check any claim made against both the bought and new definitions and will pay out if the claim is valid under either.
Similarly, if Guardian were to introduce changes that came at a cost, it will offer existing customers the opportunity to pay to add these to their policy.
“CIExpert’s research findings give everyone in the industry a clear message: consumers expect to be treated fairly. When it comes to their expectations around CI, the majority expect the same definition to be available to both existing and new customers – and it’s the provider’s job to make that happen,” said Rachael Welsh, Head of Marketing at Guardian.
Alan Lakey, Co-Founder & Director at CIExpert, added there’s a “big opportunity to grow the CI market but it relies on the industry meeting the needs and expectations of consumers today.” He believes this “clear consumer response around cover upgrade was one example, among many others identified in the report, of how our industry has the potential to revolutionise and give consumers the benefits they expect from their cover.”
“While I appreciate that enhancing product flexibility can be complicated, Guardian’s cover upgrade shows that it’s possible,” he concluded.
