Industry: Protection market sees the arrival of long-awaited new entrant
AXA has launched its long awaited menu-based protection proposition, AXA Protection Account. The solution offers guaranteed and reviewable rates across its entire product range.
The products are initially being introduced in a controlled market roll out with a select number of distribution partners, including Bankhall, LifeSearch, Millfield and Tenet. From January 2005, the AXA Protection Account will also be available through Britannia Building Society. The phased launch means the products will not be available to the whole market until the second half of 2005.
The AXA Protection Account includes traditional products such as critical illness, income protection, life cover, mortgage income protection, and accident, sickness and unemployment cover. Buildings and contents insurance is also featured in the account and there are plans to introduce private medical insurance at a later date.
The service also features a multiple quote facility, which allows advisers to alter the variables in a quote, such as the length or amount of cover and the monthly premium, to create up to five different quotes simultaneously. The proposition can be accessed in a number of ways, including through industry portals such as Exweb and AXA's extranet.
Discussing the launch, Iain Mallon, head of protection at AXA, said the menu-based proposition meets market demands and hopes it will firmly establish AXA's place in the protection market.
"We have designed a proposition with both the adviser and customer in mind. Our research has shown that advisers like menu-based products and expect them to grow. By bringing household insurance within our proposition, we are breaking new ground and taking the menu-based concept to a new level," he said.
However, the long-awaited launch has come under criticism from some industry players. "AXA's proposition is fairly complex and is not ideally suited to the IFA sector, where the adviser's job is to find the best product from a range of providers. To mix and match from a single provider goes against their independence. I think the product is more suited to a tied-agent environment," said Richard Verdin, sales and marketing director at Direct Life Pension Services.
