The changes, effective immediately, apply to Guardian’s Life Protection, Life Essentials, Critical Illness Protection, and Combined Life and Critical Illness Protection plans. They update the residency and medical registration requirements for applicants - areas that advisers have previously highlighted as barriers for clients who have recently moved to the UK.
Under the new rules, applicants must now have lived in the UK for the past six months and have the right to remain, and be currently registered with a UK doctor.
These requirements replace the previous condition that applicants must have lived in the UK and been registered with a UK GP for at least two years.
The changes do not apply to Guardian’s Income Protection product, which retains its existing residency criteria. All applicants must still be UK residents.
Hilary Banks, Chief Commercial Officer at Guardian, said the update reflects the insurer’s commitment to listening to adviser feedback and removing unnecessary barriers to cover.
She said: “As a challenger brand, we’re always listening to adviser feedback. Our advice partners consistently tell us they love our award-winning products and want to recommend us to even more of their clients. One thing that was holding them back was our previous residency criteria, which was a barrier for clients who had recently moved to the UK. We’ve now made a change, making our protection more inclusive and accessible to more people.”
Paul Shearman, Proposition Director at Openwork, welcomed the update as a positive step towards greater inclusivity in the protection market, adding: “We welcome this seemingly small, but important, change by Guardian which makes it easier for clients who’ve moved to the UK to apply for their life and critical illness cover. In our view, this approach to residency is fairer and more inclusive. It also gives advisers with clients who’ve moved here within the last 2 years a better range of covers to choose from for their protection recommendations.”
Guardian confirmed that the new criteria apply to all quotes and applications submitted from today. Advisers with clients who were previously ineligible under the old rules will now be able to reapply.
