Canada Life to exit the individual protection market

Canada Life has announced that it is no longer accepting applications for onshore individual protection products.

Products affected include Canada Life's fixed term cover life insurance and critical illness range.

Canada Life will continue to offer its group protection, home finance, annuities and international (offshore) protection products.

It confirmed that there will be no impact to existing customers and that all existing contractual obligations will be honoured, with claims paid in line with their usual processes.

Canada Life has also announced that it intends to close to new business while it enters a period of consultation with impacted employees.

Tim Stoves, managing director of protection at Canada Life, said: “I’m proud of what we have achieved since 2016 in the individual protection market, but it has become clear we need to make priority calls on where best to utlilise our resource as we continue to focus on our core areas of growth.

“Our exit from the onshore individual market allows us to refocus on other areas of our business, including group protection and the international (offshore) protection market.”

Phil Jeynes, director of corporate strategy at Reassured, commented: “In a market which has lost many high profile brands over recent years, it is disheartening to hear this news. It highlights the difficulty in making headway in a sector dominated by established, successful firms without a discernible USP. Differentiated treatment of vaping customers simply wasn’t enough for Canada Life, despite no shortage of effort from a team of impressive, experienced individuals.”