PPP lifetime, currently the UK’s largest long term care specialist insurer, plans to become the main provider of products for other companies to sell under their own brand.
Director and actuary Peter Gatenby said: “While we are presently the leading provider, the market is still small and in the future we are likely to be selling long term care products through other insurance companies. We can only work with so many IFAs, which means we cannot be the main distributor, but we will be the main manufacturer. This is similar to the `Intel inside’ concept.”
PPP lifetime currently provides branded products for Allied Dunbar and Irish Life International. It also provides care support services for Scottish Widows which recently entered the market.
Key to PPP lifetime’s proposition for other companies is its care support service. “We have set up a complete care package including counselling. Long term care needs to be far more than just a financial transaction,” said Gatenby.
He added that care support staff were totally independent from PPP lifetime’s claims department. “If it is decided a claim is payable then our care support staff will then sort out the nursing home arrangements or put together a package for the claimant to stay at home, including installing adaptations in their property,” he said.
Gatenby added PPP lifetime was now the leader in claims experience. He said the insurer had paid out over 200 claims.
He commented PPP lifetime wanted to establish a name for fair play in claims handling: “We will pay out when some people are not fully failing the Activities of Daily Living. Normally a claimant is required to fail three out of six, but we will often pay if the policyholder has problems with two.”
PPP lifetime recently launched a new long term care policy, Asset Access, which is reviewed on page 21.
·The Royal Commission to look into long term care will be chaired by Sir Stewart Sutherland, principal and vice-chairman of Edinburgh University.
It will examine the short and long term options for a sustainable system of funding long term care for elderly people.
It has been asked to recommend within 12 months how the cost for care should be shared between public funds and individuals.
The full membership includes people with knowledge of the public and independent sectors, health and social care, housing, finance, and consumer affairs. Members representing insurance companies are Joel Joffe, a lawyer and founding director of Allied Dunbar and Sir Nicholas Goodison, former chairman of the Stock Exchange and deputy chairman of the Lloyds TSB group.
Health Secretary, Frank Dobson said: “Sir Stewart will bring a dynamic and problem-solving approach to the question of how society and individuals should share the cost of long term care for the elderly.” Sutherland said: “The commission has a complex and demanding time ahead. We will look for practical answers.”