Life insurance merger

Shellynicole1983

I have life and critical illness cover with Bright grey, they merged and I now pay Royal London. Which terms and conditions apply to my policy as the Royal london list of critical illness is more extensive than what Bright grey were. Am I covered by Royal London?

Weighty1

You are covered by the conditions which applied to your policy at the time of taking it out.  Even if Bright Grey still existed as a company you would only be covered by the original conditions listed, not any which were added to the plans after your started.

dunstonh

I have life and critical illness cover with Bright grey, they merged and I now pay Royal London.

Bright Grey was a trading name of Royal London. They dediced to drop the trading name and revert to their main brand.  They did this with their other trading names in other areas as well.  It wasn't a merger.

Which terms and conditions apply to my policy as the Royal london list of critical illness is more extensive than what Bright grey were. Am I covered by Royal London?

Insurance companies release new versions of products periodically or have different versions available for different distribution channels.     What matters are the T&C for the version you have.  Not any other version.  The coverage does not change because a provider decides to retire a brand name.

Shellynicole1983

So I pay Royal London who cover for a specific critical illness yet I am not covered because of when I took my policy out? 

dunstonh

Shellynicole1983 said:

So I pay Royal London who cover for a specific critical illness yet I am not covered because of when I took my policy out? 

you pay Royal London to provide you with the cover you had on the day you took the policy out. No more. No less.

As I said, over the years, you will see different versions and different distribution channels may have different versions.  e.g. the comparison site version may have some coverage/options removed compared to the adviser/broker version (comparison sites tend to be price focused, adviser/brokers tend to be quality focused).  Or where the direct to consumer version via their own agents is not as good as the whole of market option (seen that a number of times over the years).   Or the provider may decide they no longer wish to cover something.  They cannot remove it on existing plans but they can remove it on new business plans. So, a new version is released for new business. Or they may decide to move their policy up in quality (and premium). Again, they cannot change existing policies but they create a new version for new business.

Retail financial products are no different from other retail products in that respect.  If you bought an Iphone 1 you are stuck with an Iphone 1 until you change it.  If you bought an insurance company product version 1 then you are stuck with it until you change it. However, not all versions of the latest product are better than a legacy one.  Sticking with the phone analogy, a bit like how the latest google pixel 5 phone uses a slower processor than the older pixel 3.

Aretnap

Shellynicole1983 said:

So I pay Royal London who cover for a specific critical illness yet I am not covered because of when I took my policy out? 

Perhaps the Royal London policy is more expensive than the one you originally took out. Would you want them to unilaterally increase your premiums, to match the different terms? 

In any event, as above it is perfectly normal for CI providers to change the list of conditions that they cover as time goes by, and the changes always apply to new policies only, not to old ones. This cuts both ways. As medical science advances conditions which would once have been severe become more treatable and are removed from the list. Types of cancer which would have been terminal, or at least extremely serious, become treatable, and minor heart attacks and strokes have a much more favourable prognosis, so while the headline list might still say "heart attack" or "cancer", the details of a new policy will often have stricter terms about how severe the condition has to be than an old one. So if you have an old policy you might get a payout for a minor stroke or a treatable cancer which would not be covered under the terms that Royal London are offering new customers.

The important thing is that your insurer continues to honour the terms of the policy that you agreed to at the time you took it out. If you prefer the terms of a new policy then you're at liberty to take out a new policy instead - but your age and any existing medical conditions that you have will affect the price and may make it less good value than sticking to your existing one. 

Weighty1

Shellynicole1983 said:

So I pay Royal London who cover for a specific critical illness yet I am not covered because of when I took my policy out? 

Imagine I buy a new Ford Focus this year and pay for it over 7-years.  In 3-years time there may be Ford Focus's with better specifications (or potentially worse, but not likely).  This is what you have, an old car.  That's not to say it's not fit for purpose, it could well be and chances are, if you looked at taking a new policy out now, it would be more expensive because you are older.  My own cover is 7-years old now, there are better plans out there but they'd cost me significantly more a I'm 7-years older, plus there's nothing wrong with the existing policy.  It was a good plan when it was taken out, it's just been superseded a little bit.