John Lewis home insurance - new types of policy and changed underwriters - experiences?

Doc_N

My existing home insurance policy with John Lewis is up for renewal, and has (inevitably) increased yet again.  £300 to £340 last year, and now £375.  It's one of their 'Premier' policies, and to be fair it's pretty comprehensive.  They were also very good in dealing with a claim we had under the Home Emergency section - exceptionally good in fact.

Looking at John Lewis policies currently on sale, I see that the 'Premier' is no longer sold.  They now sell Bronze, Silver and Gold policies, the Gold being more or less the equivalent of the old Premier.  The quote I have for Gold is about £350 - though there's £75 cashback to be had against this.

I'm tempted to switch, but I see that they've changed the underwriters and claims handling on these new policies from RSA to Munich Re Digital Partners Limited.  Does anyone have any experience of claims on the old RSA policies as against Munich Re on the new policies?  It's not John Lewis you're dealing with for general administration, or claims - you're dealing with two entirely separate companies for the two ranges of policies.

Sandtree

Munich Re  will just be the capacity provider, administration and claims will be other companies... think claims is Sedgwick.

Very few companies have the vast sums or will required to set up insurance companies, capital reserves, regulatory requirements etc and therefore M&S, John Lewis, Post Office and almost all the others are white labels of insurance companies or brokers. Some its purely arms length and they just get their £30 per policy commission for lending their brand and others want to be a bit more hands on in terms of defining product/service quality etc.

Doc_N

Sandtree said:

Munich Re  will just be the capacity provider, administration and claims will be other companies... think claims is Sedgwick.

Very few companies have the vast sums or will required to set up insurance companies, capital reserves, regulatory requirements etc and therefore M&S, John Lewis, Post Office and almost all the others are white labels of insurance companies or brokers. Some its purely arms length and they just get their £30 per policy commission for lending their brand and others want to be a bit more hands on in terms of defining product/service quality etc.

The claims administration on the new policies is handled by Hood Group Ltd ( https://www.hoodgroup.co.uk/hood-group-announce-new-partnership-with-john-lewis/) while Royal & Sun Alliance acted as underwriters and claims handlers for the old policies.

John Lewis have switched the policies sold under their branding from RSA to Munich Re/Hood, presumably to pick up more commission, but I'm curious to know if anyone has any experience of claims handling by the two setups.

Sandtree

Doc_N said:

Sandtree said:

Munich Re  will just be the capacity provider, administration and claims will be other companies... think claims is Sedgwick.

Very few companies have the vast sums or will required to set up insurance companies, capital reserves, regulatory requirements etc and therefore M&S, John Lewis, Post Office and almost all the others are white labels of insurance companies or brokers. Some its purely arms length and they just get their £30 per policy commission for lending their brand and others want to be a bit more hands on in terms of defining product/service quality etc.

The claims administration on the new policies is handled by Hood Group Ltd ( https://www.hoodgroup.co.uk/hood-group-announce-new-partnership-with-john-lewis/) while Royal & Sun Alliance acted as underwriters and claims handlers for the old policies.

John Lewis have switched the policies sold under their branding from RSA to Munich Re/Hood, presumably to pick up more commission, but I'm curious to know if anyone has any experience of claims handling by the two setups.

Hood are doing policy sales and service and Sedwick claims according to the industry press https://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/news/john-lewis-teams-up-with-munich-res-digital-partners-sedgwick-and-ice-insuretech-for-home-insurance-proposition/1435057.article and indeed the article you linked to too.

Commission isnt the only reason to switch, there are various comments on the Ins Times article from JL etc on the announcement but the exact detail will always be confidential. You also have to remember that RSA has recently been sold and is being broken up with a Canadian company taking over the UK aspect of the business. 

Sedwick is a large firm providing services to lots of companies, you'll find reviews of them. As mentioned though, different principles will set different SLAs etc and so quality can vary between partners.

unkle

John Lewis put most things like this out to tender periodically as it is a limited time contract. I think they'd only been with RSA for about 4-5 years and I don't believe RSA wanted to renew anyway. As already mentioned they have been sold now to a Canadian company.