LV= reveal plans for switch to gender neutral rates

Switching to gender neutral rates ahead of the legislation enforcement provides certainty for advisers, and ensures applications in the pipeline by 1 December can be processed on gender specific rates ahead of the 21 December deadline.

If by 1 December an application has further medical evidence outstanding, LV= will offer a ‘G Day Guarantee' to ensure the business can still be placed on gender specific rates in time.

LV= will underwrite the application based on the medical information provided by the client at application, and using normal underwriting standards will offer them a premium and terms. If accepted by the client, the application will be put on-risk for the full cover applied for on gender specific rates, to beat the 21 December deadline. LV= will then seek the additional medical evidence as normal, which must be received within three months of the cover start date.

In the unlikely event that the medical evidence received is materially different to that given at application, LV= will inform the adviser that the terms of the policy will be reviewed, but importantly cover will remain on gender specific rates. To provide as much certainty as possible for advisers, policies will not be adjusted for small differences in medical disclosure.

LV= won't apply the ‘G Day Guarantee' to female income protection business, as premiums are set to decrease under gender neutral pricing, or where an adviser instructs LV= not to do so.

Mark Jones, LV= Head of Protection said:

"Announcing how we will deal with our pipeline business means advisers can plan with confidence ahead of the gender directive. They can now be certain of securing gender specific rates for their clients if they want them, for applications received by LV= between now and 1 December. Given the expertise of our underwriters, we are confident fewer than 1% of policies put on-risk will need to be altered once we have received any further medical evidence retrospectively.

"We've listened to adviser's requests to provide a clear, simple and common sense approach to pipeline business, and switch to gender neutral rates ahead of 21 December to avoid any last minute uncertainty. Advisers are now guaranteed not to miss the gender deadline or see clients face an enforced increase in premiums if they act now."

Advisers do not need to request that the ‘G Day Guarantee' is applied to protection applications received before 1 December. LV= will update the adviser on the progress of the application as normal, and automatically inform the adviser if the guarantee needs to be activated.