As BGL guarantees premiums to customers for a period of 30 days, all rate changes needed to be completed by 21 November. In the run up to this date, BGL advised all 28 of its insurer partners that they were able to make rate changes on an ad-hoc basis as required - bypassing the usual process whereby rates changes are generally less frequent.
Will Price, Director of Product Development, said:
"The Gender Ruling presents the single biggest change in insurance rating in modern times, and so our partners understandably have had some concerns. We wanted to provide additional flexibility in these exceptional times. As a result, insurers were able to make changes right up to the last moment, including on November 21 itself."
BGL's insurer partners have also been given the opportunity to make more frequent amendments to their rates post November 21, in order to reduce any exposure caused as the new rates take effect in the marketplace.
Will Price continued:
"We are prepared for and expecting a number of changes to come through from our insurer partners and will get these through smoothly. With such a major change, it's possible that our insurers' new rates may not work perfectly from day one, so we wanted to make it simple for them to make changes as necessary. BGL is focused on being the Distributor of Choice and, as part of that, it's important that we're easy for our partners to do business with."