Unum has announced it will increase the number of staff on its sales team who work face to face with brokers in a bid to grow the UK protection market.
The announcement comes as Unum has created a new "Broker Services Teams" to provide a single point of contact for brokers, combining the tasks of accounts, policy production and some financial underwriting functions, covering from quotes to general enquires.
Unum hopes this will allow brokers to have more face to face time with their sales team and provide a more streamlined service to help brokers grow their business.
Swiss Re's Group Watch Data showed that the group income protection market has grown for the last 2 years, with a growth rate of 6.2% in 2013, although this growth rate was down 2.5% compared to 2012.
Unum provided protection for 1.6 million people in the UK by the end of 2013, and paid claims totalling £320 million.
Glenn Thompson, customer solutions director at Unum, said: "With support from brokers, the group income protection market has grown by 8.7% and 6.2% in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Building on this success, we are investing in our sales network to better support brokers and their businesses to continue to grow the market.
"We believe that the changes we are making will support all of our brokers, from those not yet in the GIP market to experienced hands in the Group Risk arena."
