Frequently asked questions
Underwriting
We’ve listed below some frequently asked questions which may be helpful when going through the application and underwriting process.
Medical
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For Life Cover, we may be able to consider your client. For Critical Illness Cover, we can only consider customers over the age of 50 with Type 2 Diabetes in certain circumstances. Please speak to our underwriting team on individual cases. We’re unable to offer Income Protection Cover.
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Dependent on the site of the cancer, the prognosis and the number of years passed since last treated, we could consider Critical Illness Cover with a cancer exclusion. You can contact the Scottish Widows Protect Team on 0345 030 6572 to discuss individual circumstances.
Family history
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We do not include half brothers or sisters when assessing family history.
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We understand there are circumstances such as adoption or estrangement where clients do not know of their parent or siblings' health. In these instances this question can be answered “I don't know”.
Process
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Our claims experience for this product shows that one third of claims are for Life cover and two thirds are for Critical Illness cover. Therefore the ratings are split accordingly.
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You can email the declaration to Protect@scottishwidows.co.uk or you can post to:
Scottish Widows Protect Team
PO Box 24171
69 Morrison Street
Edinburgh
EH3 1HL -
Our underwriting limits (PDF, 98KB)
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No. We will request a General Practitioners Report when required as part of our routine medical evidence. If there are any medical disclosures we are increasingly making use of Targeted General Practitioners Reports that only ask for information about the disclosed condition.
General
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Please see our residency and travel section for more information.
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We have a number of underwriting factsheets giving useful information on a variety of conditions within our literature library
For our underwriting evidence requirements, medical and financial limits and FAQs, you can find your answer on our site.
You can also use our Occupation Tool to see how your clients’ occupation may impact the terms we’re able to offer before any medical underwriting.
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We try to provide 'Own Occupation' definition of TPD to as many of our customers as possible, so where some occupations would normally not be allowed this, we have charged a small extra premium to provide them with this cover.
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At point of sale you will be advised on screen. Otherwise the definition will be confirmed on the policy schedule but you can call us to find out if you are unsure.
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At point of sale you will be advised on screen. Following manual underwriting your client will receive an explanation of the reason for any declined or postponed outcomes. You can contact the Scottish Widows Protect Team on 0345 030 6572 to discuss individual circumstances if necessary.
Financial
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You can find out how to calculate the sum assured in our Financial Underwriting section.
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You can find out when financial underwriting starts in our Financial Underwriting section.
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You can find out what percentage of your client's salary can be covered in our Financial Underwriting section.
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Yes. You will need to disclose all cover that your client has, including cover from other providers which is to remain in place.
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If a case doesn’t fit into the above criteria or for larger sums assured, the application will be referred for manual assessment. One of our senior underwriters will call you to discuss the case and we may ask your client to give additional information to validate the sum assured.
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No. Any mortgage cover is in addition to personal cover.
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This is your client’s taxable income. This can include overtime, commission and bonuses but can’t include income from investments. Don’t include any income that would continue if your client can’t work. If your client is self-employed, earnings are their taxable income – in other words earnings after costs and before tax.
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The total remuneration figure should include basic salary, regular bonuses and/or dividends and any other regular taxable income. For clients with a variable income or who are self-employed you should use an average over the last 2-3 years.
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No. All cases that do not meet our criteria will be referred for assessment by one of our senior underwriters who will contact you to discuss the case.
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Not at all. We have developed our underwriting system to ask appropriate responses to medical disclosures, so we do the same for financial assessment, removing all redundant questions.
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No. For business loan cover we’ll assess directly against the liability amount and term. Applications for Relevant Life Cover just require the customer’s remuneration. For all other covers we’ll keep the process simple and use the same thresholds. The maximum number of additional questions asked is four.
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If your client has their own valuation then you can send this to us. If we think it is a reasonable valuation then we’ll be happy to proceed using your client's figure.
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We’ll allow full cover for up to 3 directors, owners or key persons for business loan cover. This will give small businesses peace of mind that liabilities are paid off in full on a successful claim. For 4 or more directors, cover should be split to protect the share of the liability each person covered is responsible for.
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Yes, your client can select a product to cover each individual loan and term. All the products will be added to your client's overall plan.
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Cover for Key Person will be set at a maximum level based directly on either their remuneration or loss of profits attributable to the person covered. You can discuss covering death in service or pension contribution payments if this suits the business needs. However such amounts should form part of the total available and should not be offered in addition to the level of cover calculated.
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Yes, we have a Relevant Life Cover policy.