COVER Magazine welcomes you to the Claims & Underwriting Forum.

We start off the day with a welcome from our editor, Cameron Roberts. 

Vulnerability is not always visible. As vulnerable customers affect the entire value chain, and Consumer Duty continues to drive the need for deeper recognition of customer circumstances, this session will look at what best practice looks like when vulnerability is raised, and how to embed supportive, fair outcomes as part of everyday advice.

This session will:

• Consider the challenges involved for customers with long-term health conditions to access insurance.
• Assess the impact of underwriting decisions.
• Examine how processes can be designed to reduce friction and improve outcomes for vulnerable customers.

Pre-claim decision times have increasingly come under scrutiny, highlighting just how critical this stage of the customer journey can be. When decision-making is delayed, the consequences are far more serious than simple service frustration. This session explores why getting decision times right matters, what causes delays, and how insurers and advisers can support a nd make the claims process faster and easier for families during difficult times.

Long lists of medical conditions, exclusions and technical language can make protection products difficult for customers to fully understand what they are buying and when they can claim.

This session will:

• Explore whether current policy structures and wording genuinely support informed customer decision-making.
• Consider key challenges around customer understanding for CIC, IP and life.
• Examine the adviser’s duty of care in translating policy detail.
  

Supporting customers doesn’t end when a claim is paid. From grief support to rehabilitation, return-to-work programmes, counselling and third-party specialist care, the industry is redefining post-claim experiences.

The Keep Britain Working Review and industry response highlighted a growing expectation for insurers to support employee wellbeing and absence management. The industry has noticed a shift from paying for problems to preventing them but where is the line between insurer support and employer responsibility?

The session will also examine the government’s priorities for NHS funding, the impact of treatment delays, and whether increasing numbers of employees are being driven towards private healthcare solutions as a result.

Rebroking was a key focus of the FCA’s Pure Protection Market Study Interim Report, which raised concerns about switching incentives and the potential for poor customer outcomes.

This session will:

• Examine whether rebroking serves customers’ best interests.
• Explore whether the FCA’s proposed introduction of IRNs could benefit the industry by increasing transparency and deterring aggressive practices.

Thank you for joining us at COVER Customer Care Conference!