Norwich Union – the UK’s largest insurer – is the first life provider to offer IFAs the choice of quoting for and submitting term assurance electronically both online and offline. This is the first time that Norwich Union’s online acceptance service has been made available and is in addition to the offline submission service Norwich Union already provides.
Norwich Union – the UK’s largest insurer – is the first life provider to offer IFAs the choice of quoting for and submitting term assurance electronically both online and offline. This is the first time that Norwich Union’s online acceptance service has been made available and is in addition to the offline submission service Norwich Union already provides.
Research commissioned by Norwich Union into the use of e- commerce by IFAs has thrown-up some interesting facts and figures with 41% of IFAs believing that it takes between one and three weeks to process a term assurance application online*.
In actual fact, Norwich Union estimate that, for younger lives, as much as 60% of “clean” term assurance quotes can be submitted online with a decision returned within seconds** using its new online term assurance application process – launched today. The whole process including the completion of the application form takes as little as fifteen minutes**.
Available from the 18 February 2002, IFAs will be able to access this new e-commerce service through the Norwich Union IFA extranet at www.norwich-union.co.uk/ifa and the Exchange. Currently, IFAs print off an average of 400,000 term quotes a year through the Exchange quote platform*** and Norwich Union is hoping to capitalise on the growing need amongst IFAs to move away from paper-based procedures and embrace the use of the internet.
Willie Mowatt, head of retirement and propositions from Norwich Union said: “By offering IFAs the choice of applying for term assurance both on and offline, we are recognising that no single solution will meet the needs of all IFAs and that different solutions are needed to meet different requirements.
“IFAs are able to choose the functionality that most closely fits with their individual needs. For example, the online process would be more suitable for IFAs who value the importance of speed and require fully instant term assurance decisions while the offline process offers IFAs the capability of populating proposal forms from their fact finds, meaning common data is only keyed in once. According to our research 65% of IFAs would use an online application process if applications were processed quicker than paper-based applications* so we are expecting lots of demand.”
Simple and easy to use, additional benefits of using Norwich Union e-commerce systems include a faster turnaround and greater accuracy thanks to the self-checking application forms that ensures no invalid data is submitted – leading to fewer application errors, returns and administration costs. A new feature of the online system is the addition of a help function to maximise the number of cases getting an immediate online decision. Using the Norwich Union extranet, IFAs will also be able to track the progress of their protection application in an instant.
For further information visit the Norwich Union website at www.norwich-union.co.uk/ifa or the Exchange.
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Press office contacts:
James Evans, Norwich Union 08703 66 68 78
Out of hours 07790 487105
Louise Goffee, Norwich Union 08703 66 68 70
Out of hours 07810 057362
Notes to editors
* The research was commissioned by Norwich Union and took place from 12 November – 23 November 2001. The research sample consisted of 204 telephone interviews amongst IFAs throughout the UK, national, regional and local. Source : Norwich Union
** This is based on current proportions of term assurance (no options) business accepted for lives under 40. Source : Norwich Union.
*** Between May 2001 and January 2002, 302,000 term quotes were printed by IFAs using the Exchange quote platform. Therefore the annual projection would be 400,000 printed quotes per year. Source : The Exchange / Norwich Union, January 2001.
Key findings include:
- 81% of IFAs rate the importance of being able to track the progress of an application form for a term assurance/mortgage protection policy as very/quite important
- 83% of IFAs would be very/quite likely to use an online application process for a client with a clean medical history
- 17% of IFAs rate the proportion of returned policy documentation on which clerical errors are noticed as between 21% and 100%
- 79% of IFAs feel that it is very/quite important to the company’s image that you appear progressive and linked to the e-commerce revolution
- Norwich Union is the UK’s largest insurer. It is the UK’s largest provider of life, pensions and investment products and one of the leading IFA providers. IFAs provide around 75% of the company’s long-term savings business.
- Norwich Union has strategic alliances with over 20 building societies and other leading UK brand names including Tesco Personal Finance and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
- Norwich Union’s news releases are available on this internet site
- A selection of images is available from the CGNU Newscast site at www.newscast.co.uk
- An ISDN facility is available for studio quality interviews. Call the press office on 08703 66 68 73
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