Expert insight, analysis and commentary across the entire protection industry.
by ProtectionReview 01/08/13
By the time you are reading this, I will have moved up an age category on all those annoying tick-box forms. If I had a car, it would be cheaper, but I don’t. Pretty much everything else is more expensive or laden with exclusions but it doesn’t matter because no-one in the insurance world is trying to sell me anything anyway! I had thought this was because I am one of those creatures the industry doesn’t seem to think have any money to spend and will be a drain on the portfolio when I get depressed, and at first, my…
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by ProtectionReview 03/07/13
Next Best Protection? I have been working in Ireland for the past few weeks. I have not worked there since the late 90’s and a lot has happened since I was last there. The net result of those “happenings” will take time to sort out. However a couple of points struck me this week: • Some economies are in a far worse state than ours; • The Irish are a very resilient bunch; • Guinness is definitely still nicer when served within spitting distance of the Liffey (I don’t care what anyone says, it is). As we have seen in…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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