Lutine Broker News

[19-Mar-2007]

Lutine Assurance Services is pleased to announce the official launch of its longer term contracts of policy terms 10 years and a day to 25 years.  Rates are available from the Exchange and by calling our office on 0121 200 1919.

We will be offering indemnity commission of 170% of the first year’s premium while maintaining a competitive premium.

Lutine Assurance is probably best known for its flexible approach to unusual, technically complex or high sum assured cases.  The new products see a move away from this area to more straight through processing with lower premiums that reflect this process.

The product will be geared to an easy application process and therefore will be restricted to a maximum sum assured of £300,000 for any one life and a maximum age at entry of 50 attained to keep medical evidence and financial requirements to a minimum.

Important message from Martin Herrick, Underwriting Manager at Lutine Assurance.

Lutine has long been renowned for its approachable, flexible stance on underwriting issues.  However this was on products where we were unable to finance indemnity commission and were not always able to provide top quartile rates.

This new product has been designed to provide competitive indemnity commission terms and competitive rates. This means that we have to manage our costs quite aggressively.

As such the underwriting approach we will be taking will be much more clinical.  We are aware that there is nothing worse for brokers than taking time to ‘sign up’ clients only to have insurers decline cases or spend endless amounts of time requesting medical evidence.

At Lutine we have always believed in being up front with our brokers and our clients and where possible to manage everyone’s expectations of what the likely outcome will be at as early a stage as possible.

This leaflet is therefore designed to let you know that if your client has suffered from any of the following conditions it is probably not worthwhile completing our Term Assurance proposal:

  • Cancer including leukaemia, Hodgkin's disease, lymphoma, brain or spinal tumour
  • Heart attack, angina, heart defects from birth and heart surgery
  • Stroke, circulatory problems, brain haemorrhage or permanent brain injury
  • Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, paralysis, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or cerebral palsy
  • Mental illness that has required hospital treatment or referral to a psychiatrist or ever involved self harm or suicide attempts
  • Hepatitis B and C, ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease

Clearly we still cannot say that every proposal we receive will be acceptable but hopefully we have given a good indication of cases where it may not be in the interests of you or the life assured to complete the proposal form.
We would stress that on our other products you will still receive the same hands on underwriting approach for which Lutine is renowned.
One last plea to all brokers who want to use our services, please ensure any proposals submitted are fully answered and completed with full details where applicable. This avoids us having to request information that could be obtained when completing the proposal, thereby wasting our time, your time and your client’s time.

Thank you.

Martin Herrick,
Chief Underwriter.

Below is the product specification for term assurance of policy terms 10 years and a day to 25 years.

Term: Minimum term is 10 years 1 day and maximum term is 25 years.
Sum Assured: No minimum (governed by minimum premium). Maximum is £300,000.
Ages: Minimum age is 18 attained and the maximum age is 50 attained. Cover must expire by age 70 attained.
Premium: Minimum premium is £4.00 per month. There is no annual or single premium option.
Clients: Open to male and females, smokers and non smokers.
Smokers: We class smokers as anyone who has smoked cigarettes within the last 12 months or who smokes more than 1 cigar per day on average. Smokers pay a higher premium than non smokers.
Large Sum Assured Discounts: There are various large sum assured discounts that apply from £50,000 sum assured upwards.
Medical Evidence: We will employ a certain level of streamlined underwriting. As such the majority of lives will be acceptable on just an automatic proposal form. The only other automatic medical evidence will be paramedic screenings for ages over 40 up to age 45 who require cover in excess of £200,000 or for ages over 45 up to 50 who require cover in excess of £150,000.
Additional Benefits: Terminal Illness cover is automatically included.
Trusts/Assignments: Cover can be written under a trust or can be assigned.
Types of Policies: We can offer a Level Term contract or a Mortgage Decreasing Term contract based on a maximum interest rate of 12% per annum.
Commission: We will pay indemnity commission of 170% of the first year’s annualised premium (equivalent to approximately 153% LAUTRO) with renewal commission of 2.5% payable from month 49 onwards. The clawback period is pro-rata during the first 48 months.
Quotes: Can be obtained from the Exchange or on 0121 200 1919.

Managing Director of Lutine, Jon Clarke comments:-
“This is another exciting development at Lutine – with further streamlined underwriting that has been tested and proven to work – and we will be paying indemnity commission on this product.”

Shaun Murphy, Sales & Marketing Manager comments:-
“With this product we do as we say on the side of the can: at Lutine – no messing!  We have the systems in place to streamline the underwriting of life cases even faster than ever.
“It’s a nice message to deliver to the IFA market that is already being well received by national IFA’s.”

Underwriting Manager, Martin Herrick comments:-
“We have been known for our ability to help with complex cases.  We now want to show brokers we have simple Term and Mortgage Protection products where contact with the underwriters is more limited but provides a quick no nonsense underwriting approach.  As Shaun says ‘it does what is says on the side of the can.’ we will be quick and responsive!
“We will still look to provide our ‘hold the hand’ approach on our other products but this product has rates and a process designed to give IFA’s what they have been telling us they want.  That is good rates, with indemnity commission and a very quick response time.”

(End.)

Questions to Shaun Murphy Sales & Marketing Manager on:- 07971 541 724.