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Why our mutuality matters for your clients

DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY

Why our mutuality matters for your clients

What’s the mutual benefit?

In simple terms, being a mutual means we’re owned by our customers. So, unlike a PLC, we don’t answer to shareholders or have dividends to pay.

For us, mutuality is a state of mind.

Our core philosophy is that we exist for one sole purpose – to deliver the best possible experience and outcomes for our customers.

So while a PLC will try to push its resources towards generating greater profit for its shareholders, our actions will always be driven by the long-term best interests of your clients.

It’s this simple ethos that makes us different to most of our competitors.

As we’re run purely for the benefit of our customers, we focus on the things that matter to them – honesty, value and outstanding service.

How we’re differentBecause we’re driven by the needs of our customers, we can design solutions that are truly customer centric. We’re built differently, we’re run differently, and we think differently.

A menu approach to protection

For a long time, we’ve championed a menu-based approach to protection – we believe this delivers the best value and outcomes for customers. With our Menu Plan, you can mix and match a range of covers and benefits with different sums assured and plan terms to tailor the cover that suits your clients’ needs and budgets. Our Menu Plan offers customers a flexible plan for life that can keep pace with their changing protection needs. All with just one application, one plan charge and one direct debit.

When it comes to critical illness, we’re committed to offering cover where it matters. That’s why we focus on those critical illness definitions that your clients are more likely to claim on. We’ve made several improvements in these areas over the years and, unlike some of our competitors, we offer comprehensive adult cover as standard. But we know that when it comes to children’s cover, what suits one client might not suit another. And the needs of a family are bound to change over the years. So, when your clients take out our Critical Illness Cover, they can choose a level of Children’s Critical Illness Cover to suit where they’re at. And if their needs change, they can change their cover easily over the phone – without giving us any medical information.

We also offer Free Cover on most of our plans. It’s temporary cover – the same type as your client applies for – and it starts as soon as we receive their completed application form. So, they’re covered even before their plan has officially started. We paid out over £620,0001 in claims in 2018 to customers who sadly had to make a claim before their plans had started.

OUR MENU PLANoffers customers a flexible plan for life

These are just some examples of how, by taking a customer-centric approach to designing propositions, we’re different to our competitors.

1 Source: Royal London UK Protection business claims paid 2018

Why our mutuality matters for your clients

Our support services

We’ve always believed that good quality cover is about more than a financial pay out. That’s why we were the first provider to offer people a new approach to protection based on the idea that protection should not only be there to help people financially, but also to support them emotionally. We did this by offering customers a support service that they could turn to at any time, not just when they had made a claim. We called it Helping Hand and it’s still a fundamental part of our proposition, just as it was back when we launched it. Helping Hand is a support service that comes with all our protection plans available through intermediaries. It’s available to your clients from the day their plan starts, they don’t need to pay anything extra to use it and don’t need to make a claim to use it either. Your client’s partner and children can use it too.

If your clients experience serious illness, injury or bereavement during the term of their plan, Helping Hand gives them access to a dedicated nurse who’ll provide tailored and personal support for as long as they need it. The nurse will develop a personal support plan tailored to their circumstances – which will include any relevant additional support services. This could include things such as access to a second medical opinion, specialist support to help someone cope with cancer or cardiac rehabilitation support after heart attack.

Helping Hand is a package of support services provided by third parties that aren’t regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. These services aren’t part of our terms and conditions so can be amended or withdrawn at any time.

THE FIRST PROVIDER to offer people a new approach to protection

A SUPPORT SERVICEthat your clients can turn to at any time

ACCESSto a dedicated nurse who’ll provide tailored and personal support

100%2

of our customers rated Helping Hand as good or excellent

How we’re different

2 Source: Helping Hand patient survey 2019

Claims support

We take a personal approach to handling your client’s claim. We’re proud to have a strong claims track record – we paid 99% of claims in 20183. But we know that when your clients are going through a difficult time the experience they have is important too. From a single point of contact who manages a claim from start to finish, to access to a dedicated nurse through Helping Hand, we make sure all claims are handled with care.

We’ve also signed up to the Funeral Payment Pledge. This means we’ll help families pay the funeral costs up to £10,000 on life cover claims if there’s no will or delays because of probate. And we’ve created a bereavement guide which we send out for all Life Cover claims. This comprehensive guide lists what someone needs to do immediately after the death and who they need to tell. It also signposts organisations that can help provide emotional support.

Our underwriting approach

We think differently when it comes to underwriting too. Most applications we receive get an immediate decision. However, if we do have to refer an application it will be looked after by a dedicated underwriter who’ll see it through from start to finish. They’ll keep you up-to-date at every point of the process. We work under a broad set of principles rather than a process. Of course we have our underwriting philosophy, data protection regulations, and other guidelines to follow. But our underwriters have the flexibility to speak to you, your client or whoever it is that can give a better understanding of the situation.

99%3

CLAIMSPAID

WE'RE PROUDto have a strong claims track record

We want to be able to offer more cover for more people in the UK. That’s why we developed our Diabetes Life Cover. We know that people with diabetes can struggle to find competitively priced life insurance. So, we’ve designed cover specifically for them – it can reward good control with a reduced premium if their condition improves. We also recently launched a pilot offering life insurance to individuals with severe mental health conditions.

The pilot is designed with a new underwriting philosophy to offer cover to those people who would traditionally be declined a protection product. Through this pilot, we’ve successfully offered cover to 75 per cent of applicants who would typically be uninsurable. This includes those who have or have had conditions such as psychosis, schizophrenia and severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

3 Source: Royal London UK Protection business claims paid 2018

Why our mutuality matters for your clients

Social responsibility

We’re committed to doing more than making profits. Everything we do is about improving the lives of our customers, members and wider society wherever we can influence positive change. We’ve identified three key social problems – our social impact themes – where we can make a real difference by tackling these issues over the longer term:

Building financial resilience

Taking on the long-term savings crisis

Strengthening responsible investment

We’re proud of how we’ve already made a difference:• We lobby the Government on behalf

of everyone who struggles to pay for a funeral - 73,935 people in 20184

• We’ve created 22 money guides to help customers take control of their financial situation

• We engaged 123 companies on key issues such as director pay and climate change in 20185

• We’ve reduced our Edinburgh, Wilmslow and Bath offices annual CO2 emissions by 495 tonnes6

How we’re different

4 Royal London National Funeral Cost Index Report 20195 Royal London Annual Report 20186 British Independent Utilities 2017-18

As a mutual, we’re only interested in delivering better outcomes and experiences for our customers – and we firmly believe these will always be underpinned by quality, impartial advice.

But we know that talking to your clients about protection can be challenging. That’s why we develop tools and support to help you tackle any objections and have better protection conversations – helping your clients to understand both the value of protection and the value you offer through tailored advice.

When your clients need advice, we’ll point them to you e.g. when they want to make changes to their plan. And we’ve signed up to the Protection Distributors Group Claims Charter – among other things this means we'll let you know if any of your clients claim on their plan. This means you can update your records and no potential distress is caused to your clients and their families by you not knowing about a claim.

Sometimes we’ll need to contact your clients directly but we won’t get in the way of your relationship with them and will always keep you in the loop. And while we have a direct-to-consumer division, it’s designed to serve customers with very basic financial needs such as funeral plans and those who have no access to financial advice.

We think you can tell a lot about a company by the industry awards and ratings it receives. The fact our performance has been recognised across not one, but many award categories is testament to the expertise of our staff and their commitment to doing all they can for your business and your clients.

We were voted Company of the Year at the 2019 Financial Adviser Service Awards – and received 5 stars for our protection service, for the sixth year running.

Our commitment to your business A lot to shout about

April 2020 SA P8 P1 0033

Royal London1 Thistle Street, Edinburgh EH2 1DG

royallondon.com

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All of our printed products are produced on stock which is from FSC® certified forests.

The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. The firm is on the Financial Services Register, registration number 117672. It provides life assurance and pensions. Registered in

England and Wales, company number 99064. Registered office: 55 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0RL. Royal London Marketing Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and introduces Royal London’s customers to other insurance companies. The firm is on the Financial Services Register, registration

number 302391. Registered in England and Wales company number 4414137. Registered office: 55 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0RL.

For more information about the benefits of our mutuality, speak to your usual

Royal London contact or visit adviser.royallondon.com