Drewberry Insurance has launched a new income protection (IP) comparison tool aimed at helping consumers make a more informed decision.
The protection and health intermediary said that many IP products are marketed as protecting someone's income if they are unable to work, but this is an oversimplification.
It noted that for occupations with a significant level of manual work many insurers will use an ‘Activities of Daily Living' (ADL) incapacity definition.
Drewberry developed the income protection comparison tool to enable consumers to locate all information they would need in order to decide whether that particular plan is right for them, located in one place and clearly explained.
The tool allows the details of two plans to be compared side-by-side, even bringing up ‘key considerations' comparing both policies directly.
Tom Conner, head of protection at Drewberry Income Protection, said, "Unfortunately, many people are taking out policies with weaker occupation definitions without actually knowing what they are covered for until they speak to an adviser, or go to make a claim.
"It is also the case that some insurers have decided to offer certain workers own occupation cover for the first year or two of a claim and then switch the incapacity definition to working tasks, which is extremely confusing for anyone who isn't very familiar with this cover.
"In this price sensitive world we are also coming across large numbers of people who have been quoted premiums that rise with age because they are lower now, without anyone even explaining that they rise over time, which is very misleading and just not right."
The tool has not been created to replace an adviser but rather it has been designed to set out the facts about each policy clearly so consumers know exactly what they are being quoted which includes each insurers claims payout rate.
