Bright Grey Critical Illness Cover
Bright Grey has brought in a number of changes to its existing critical illness plans. The changes include:
A new full payment condition, spinal stroke, has been added.
The Parkinson’s disease definition has been improved and is now ABI+ status.
The multiple sclerosis definition has been simplified.
Both the breast cancer and prostate cancer definitions have been improved.
Changes and improvements have been made to various other full payment and severity definitions. These include to those for aplastic anaemia; benign brain tumour; cancer; coma; heart attack; multiple sclerosis; stroke and children’s critical cover.
The maximum payout under the severity definitions has been increased to the lower of £25,000 and 25% of the sum insured.
The changes also bring the plan into line with the requirements of the ABI’s latest Statement of Best Practice for Critical Illness Cover.
Comment: Bright Grey was a breath of fresh air when it launched and it has built a good brand, not least on its innovation and customer friendliness. But, later this year the name is due to disappear as it and Scottish Provident rebrand as Royal London. That has the potential to be a very strong move, but it also runs the risk that Bright Grey’s ethos becomes diluted or is even lost altogether in the process. Meantime, it is business as usual and, as is usual in the CI market, that means tweaking cover to add more conditions, redefine some existing ones and generally tidy up. If it wasn’t the wrong season, this could almost be thought of as insurers’ spring cleaning!
That said, these are useful changes that look to bring Bright Grey back more strongly into the CI market. There’s nothing spectacularly new or better though, and cynics may argue this is Bright Grey just looking to catch up with its competitors. Overall though these are welcome changes but IFAs will want the name change and repositioning to not just be completed quickly but also for there to be strong new brand values they can advocate to their clients.
Plus points: A range of improved definitions and a new condition covered; Definitions are now fully ABI compliant; Bright Grey is one of the more innovate protection insurers.
Not so plus points: As with most CI plans, it is hard to know just how much better the plan is in terms of extra claims that can now be paid; Will the Bright Grey ethos be lost or diluted when it rebrands as Royal London?; These changes may be perceived as Bright Grey catching up with competitors rather than leading the market.
Website: http://www.brightgrey.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 7. Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: CI; Bright Grey