Time for 'T' clarification

Bright Grey, the specialist protection arm of the Royal London Group, is calling for greater clarity in relation to the definitions used for tele-underwriting. As more and more companies introduce various degrees of tele-underwriting, Bright Grey is suggesting the introduction of benchmarking to remove confusion and help advisers understand the level of service providers are offering.

At the moment companies use the term tele-underwriting to mean gathering any amount of information over the phone. For some companies this translates to virtually everything that would be contained in an application form i.e. personal, occupational and health details, which is commonly defined in the industry as ‘big T’.

For others, it is just health questions they gather on the phone, referred to as ‘little t’. Then there are some who simply follow up specific disclosures made on a traditional application form with a few questions over the phone – which presumably would be described as ‘tiny t’?

The problem is at the moment the whole spectrum is collectively referred to as tele-underwriting. For those advisers who are beginning to place tele-underwriting as a pre-requisite for doing business with a provider it can be difficult to compare exactly what each provider offers.

Bright Grey believe that the industry should adopt clearer definitions to stop any confusion and that the current terminology should be dropped in favour of more transparent terms:

• Big T should be Full Telephone Application Service.
• Little t should be Telephone Health Questioning.
• Tiny t should be Telephone disclosure follow up.