
1970
Public Limited Company
Unum Mutual established its first ever headquarters in Boston. A year after it was set up, their first ever policy was issued for $5,000 in Life Insurance.
Unum, as we know it now, is a group comprised of many different separate companies.
In 1990, Unum (US) purchased the company NEL and became the parent company of NEL Permanent Health Insurances Limited (NELPHI). NELPHI eventually became Unum’s UK company.
Since then, they have continued to grow from strength to strength, focusing on supplying businesses and workers with valuable protection products. Unum UK are today one of the leading providers of professional protection products.
Executive Income Protection is flexible enough that a policy can be purchased by an employer for an employee, or an employer can purchase a policy to cover themselves.
Overview of Key Policy Details
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Policy Type | Income Protection |
Premium Type | Guaranteed or Reviewable |
Maximum Claim Duration | Full Cover to Term Limited Payment Term |
Incapacity Definition | Own Occupation |
Deferred Period | 4 weeks/ 8 weeks/ 13 weeks/ 26 weeks/ 52 weeks |
Indexation | Optional |
Waiver of Premium | Automatically included |
Maximum Cover | 80% of your earnings |
Minimum Entry Age | 18 years old |
Maximum Entry Age | 64 years old |
Maximum Policy Cease Age | 70 years old |
Guaranteed Insurability | Yes |
Policy Exclusions | No standard exclusions |
We have taken care to ensure that the information on this Drewberry owned website is accurate. However we can give no guarantee as to the accuracy of the content of the site. We accept no liability for any losses whether direct or indirect arising from errors on our part.
Executive Income Protection is designed mostly to protect high earning, office-based professionals. Because of that, it may be expensive for or not available to workers with risky occupations.
These are the benefits available to you when you own an Unum Executive Income Protection policy. Some of these are freely available while others are available as options that you can add to your policy.
Your benefit will be increased by 20% if the policyholder has been claiming for incapacity for more than 2 years and they are unable to perform daily tasks, such as dressing themselves, climbing stairs, or holding a pen.
If the policyholder dies during the first 12 months of claiming, Unum will pay out a lump sum equal to 12 months of benefit payments minus the benefits they already paid during this time.
Protect your cover against inflation by linking it with the RPI or setting a fixed yearly increase of 5%. Premiums will increase in line with any increases to your cover.
Get 24/7 access to Unum’s lifestyle support service, whcih includes legal advice and face-to-face counselling sessions and online CBT sessions.
Unum’s own vocational rehabilitation consultants are available to offer guidance and support for claiming employees to help them return to work. This includes assessing their emotional and physical conditions and training managers and HR teams to help and prevent stress, sickness and injuries around the workplace.
If you stop working, you can choose to take a career break for up to 12 months. During this time, you will not have to pay for your policy, but you also can’t claim. You can reinstate your policy at any time during these 12 months with your old premiums and terms as they wore. This option can be beneficial for contractors or professionals who may take long breaks from work or have inconsistent workflow.
1.4 million people in the UK were protected by Unum by the end of 2016 and Unum paid £293 million worth of claims. This boils down to them paying in excess of £5.5 million per week in benefits to their customers. Unum Ltd has a financial strength rating of A- from Standard & Poor’s
We aim to know the policies we advise on, inside out and back to front. Below we have answered a couple of commonly asked questions with regards to Unum’s Executive Income Protection policies.
A. Your cover will not be affected by deflation and Unum will not reduce your cover. If RPI stays the same or if there is a decrease, Unum will keep your cover as it is.
When it comes to increases, the increase of your premiums when your cover is increased will be based on Unum’s premium rate tables. You can turn down an increase of cover prior to the deadline, however turning down an increase on two consecutive occasions will result in Unum cancelling your policy’s indexation. After this, you will not be entitled to any more increases in cover.
A. Unum will allow you to claim on your policy providing you are residing in one of the countries they have approved of. This includes any country within the European Union, United States of America, Australia, Canada, and several others.
However, Unum will only make benefit payments to a UK bank account in pounds sterling an any earnings you have accumulated in foreign currency will be subject to the prevailing exchange rate at the time that your incapacity started.
A. Unum can be quite lenient when it comes to defining a deferred period. Typically, a deferred period requires you to be continuously absent from the work. However, Unum consider working part-time or on restricted duties as counting towards your deferred period.
You can link different periods of absence to cover your deferred period if they have the same or a related cause. However, these separated periods of absence need to be at least 2 weeks. These periods of absence will also need to take place within a period of time double that of your set deferred period.
For example, if you have a deferred period of 13 weeks, you would need to have accumulated a total of 13 weeks of absence within 26 weeks.
As you can see, there are a lot of points to consider when comparing insurers. With so many factors in play, it can be time-consuming to pull up key information across every single insurer in the market, so why not ask an adviser for help?
We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.
If it is all getting a little confusing and you want to talk you through your options to make sure you find the most suitable cover please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Pop us a call on 02084327333 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.
Tom Conner
Director
I’ve held a policy with Drewberry for several years now. They are always friendly, insightful and offer great service.
Or call us on 0208 432 7333
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