Expert insight, analysis and commentary across the entire protection industry.
by ProtectionReview 02/07/13
Well, here we go again, beat up the sick for getting sick, hit on the disabled – how dare they. But, and here is an interesting thing, if an employer puts his hand in his pocket to pay privately for treatment for his employee then that employee will pay tax on the whole amount. Isn’t this crazy! So as an employer I can be paying a salary to an employee whilst they are waiting to be treated by the NHS. The only ways around this are for an employer to put in a full medical insurance scheme or for the…
read more »
by ProtectionReview 18/06/13
In April this year the topic that the FCA chose for its first Occasional Paper was Behavioural Economics. The Paper has much to commend it but there are a number of shortcomings which, if left unchallenged, could undermine the potential for consumer and industry benefit. For the purposes of this brief article I offer three observations but first we need a bit of scene setting. Our ancestors were governed by three imperatives: finding food; making sure they didn’t end up as food for something else; and sex. Pretty much the same imperatives that apply today in Canary Wharf or Croydon.…
read more »
by ProtectionReview 13/06/13
A Bill currently going through Parliament has significant implications for the way the Financial Services Industry is regulated versus other potential providers of what could loosely be termed ‘Financial Products’. Clause 34 of the new Care Bill (1) re-emphasises the role the Government sees for Deferred Payment (DP) agreements in funding care fees. A DP is an agreement for a Local Authority (LA) to pay an adults care costs, secured by a charge against the adult’s legal or beneficial interest over his or her home. Some commentators claim that DP’s are in reality unregulated Financial Products that will compete unfairly…
read more »
by ProtectionReview 21/05/13
My family and I moved into our current home way back in February 1997. We arranged our mortgage, a fairly chunky £400,000-worth, through the brokers John Charcol, who also arranged £400,000 of 25-year term life cover with a very large and prominent life assurer. The cover is still in place, and over the years I’ve paid many thousands of pounds in premiums. Since then, much has happened in our lives. Our two children, who were then very small, are now pretty large and both at uni. My wife stopped working full-time and set up a part-time business from home. I…
read more »
by ProtectionReview 21/05/13
Wanted: A Minister for Insurance Even an industry outsider such as myself understands that Insurance is different. Unlike other market sectors (e.g. construction, energy, leisure, retail, or telecoms) Insurance and The State are natural partners. Wherever there is a combination of democracy and developed economy, citizen-consumers look to a combination of State and Market to help us manage the risks that we and our families face. The relationship, therefore, between the two parties is too important to be defined by Regulation. • For Accident & Emergency services the State is the provider. • For Motor Insurance the State makes it…
read more »
