The Protection Distributors Group (PDG) has announced the latest list of insurers that meet its best practice claims criteria to become Claims Charter signatories, following a rigorous review of claims handling practices across the industry.
Fourteen (14) insurers have met PDG’s standards and been named as signatories to the Claims Charter for 2022, bringing total membership up to 21. These are Aegon, AIG, British Friendly, Guardian, Holloway, HSBC Life, Legal & General, LV=, MetLife, Scottish Widows, Shepherds Friendly, The Exeter, Vitality, and Zurich.
The Claims Charter was introduced in 2018 to encourage better outcomes for claimants by improving basic levels of best practice undertaken by insurers. The charter sets out several criteria which must be met before an insurer can become a signatory.
The recent review of practices is the first since the charter was introduced in 2018 and will now be carried out annually as PDG seeks to encourage insurers to improve best practice.
“There is no doubt the past two years have been challenging for insurers, particularly with regard to claims handling,” Neil McCarthy, chair at the Protection Distributors Group, said. “But we felt the time was right to review claims practices across the industry to ensure we are maintaining the standards we have currently identified as being best practice.”
McCarthy related that they ran an in-depth survey looking at insurer claims practices across the industry to ensure existing Claims Charter signatories were continuing to abide by the criteria.
“There was a sense among the group’s members that claims standards had slipped during the pandemic, and that there was therefore a need to investigate this to ensure the robustness of the Charter,” the group chair said. “Where we identified the charter’s criteria was not being met, we worked with insurers to ensure improvements were made for claimants and intermediaries so that as many as possible met the charter’s requirements.
“It is our very real hope that those insurers who are not current signatories will work towards meeting the criteria and we look forward to welcoming further signatories in the future.”
