Why we partner with Winston’s Wish

Ellipse has a long standing partnership with Winston’s Wish, the leading childhood bereavement charity in the UK. Last October they launched a fundraising competition at the Cover Health and Protection Forum. The competition, over a ten week period, encouraged advisers to compete against each other to raise money for the charity. We were delighted to sponsor prizes for the winner and runner up – dinner and lunch respectively at The Shard. 

The runner – up was London & Country, who did various activities to fundraise:

·         A member of the team did 50 press ups an hour, each hour for one day

·         They had an ‘own clothes day’ and Christmas jumper day in aid of Winston’s Wish

The winner was PMI Partners, who also thought of inventive ways to raise money:

·         Numerous fancy dress days, with one colleague dressing up as Geri Halliwell

·         The CEO dressed up as a Christmas elf and decorated the Christmas tree.

As a result of their involvement in the competition, London and Country have nominated Winston’s Wish as their charity of the year, donating £1 for every policy they sell. They will also be hosting their own Great British Brekkie, an annual fundraising campaign.

Speaking with both companies on why they chose to get involved in the competition, reminded me of the vital work Winston’s wish provide and how proud Ellipse are to be a sponsor of their specialist work with families. A death in a corporate client’s scheme is our – and the adviser and employer’s - moment of truth.   As well as getting the money to the beneficiaries as quickly as possible we strive to provide more than the cheque.  We encourage our insured families to contact Winston’s Wish to get practical support and guidance.  For each death claim made on our policies we make a donation to Winston’s Wish.  We also sponsor their program helping families bereaved as a result of suicide - a situation where the charity's expertise and support is often especially appreciated.  (1 in 5 calls to the Winston’s Wish helpline relate to bereavement after a suicide). I believe they should be a favored charity for all of us in the life sector.

Winston Churchill and his wishes

Events to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s death and state funeral are in full flow.  Our good friends at Winston’s Wish, the leading UK bereavement charity reminded me of a Churchill quote I used when doing a presentation for their team more than 10 years ago.

“If I had my way, I would write the word “insure” upon the door of every cottage and upon the blotting book of every public man, because I am convinced, for sacrifices so small, families and estates can be protected against catastrophes which would otherwise smash them up forever.

It is the duty to arrest the ghastly waste, not merely of human happiness, but national health and strength, which follows when, through the death of the breadwinner, the frail boat in which the family are embarked, founders and the women and children and the estates are left to struggle in the dark waters of a friendless world”

Winston’s Wish was founded in 1992 by Julie Stokes OBE.  With a grant from the Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, Julie went on her travels to Canada and the US to find best practice in helping children and families to deal with the aftermath of the death of a parent or sibling.  On her return she founded this truly excellent and inspiring organisation.

Ellipse are proud to be a sponsor of Winston’s Wish and their specialist work with families bereaved by suicide. We introduce all our claimants to Winston’s Wish and encourage contact through their Helpline.

Digital delivery makes it economic for everyone - whether through their workplace or as an individual – to get access to a decent level of life and disability cover.    Our industry has the possibility and the capability to fulfil another of the great man’s wishes. 

Highly rated group life and disability cover

Every six months or so we survey advisers who have a terms of business agreement with us about our product offerings and services and we have now collated the results.

While we get feedback from advisers in the normal course of business, it is very useful to get a regular snapshot of how competitive (or not!) we are and to spot any trends in how advisers are thinking about us and the service we offer.

In every survey, we get several useful suggestions and pointers.  Of course, we can’t act on all of them – there are some where we just disagree philosophically with the points being made – but we give serious attention to everything that the surveys reveal.

Headline results from our November survey are:

…the competitiveness of our group life quotes 8.9 out of 10

… the quality of our service when you make contact with us 8.2 out of 10

…system availability 8.9 out of 10

…system stability 8.8 out of 10

…’overall’ rating of Ellipse 8.0 out of 10

A complete survey report is on our website here. We have also provided the detailed feedback we received on competitiveness, systems and customer service.  We also respond on the themes emerging and specific comments from advisers.

Because of its importance to us, we are extremely grateful to all the advisers who took part.  We hope to get another good response when we run our next survey.

7families in a nutshell

We are delighted to be one of the insurer sponsors of 7families.

 • In partnership with Disability Rights UK, the project finds seven families who have been impacted by incapacity to work and who don’t have long sick pay income cover from their employer or insurance as individuals.

• Grants to the equivalent of an income protection benefit are paid and the incapacitated worker is case managed and assisted as if they had disability cover in place.

• The main purpose is to show the reality of engagement with insurers, the imperative of communication to keep the person in touch with their place of work and to show how rehab and intensive case management and treatment can mitigate the economic wastage for the individual, the family, the employer and society.

• Fundamentally, this is about telling those stories and increasing awareness of the single biggest risks that families run, that is the loss of income from incapacity to work and the short/medium and long-term effects that has on the person and their family.
 

You can check for updates and support the campaign online by following these links:

Website: www.7families.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/7families

Twitter: www.twitter.com/7families

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/sevenfamilies

The Ellipse approach to member assessment

The traditional approach to individual underwriting in group life and disability is a very time consuming process that can normally take weeks or months to produce a decision. Our online member assessment is faster, simpler and - we believe - better.

We differ from the rest of the market by using an online questionnaire to assess members with benefits not covered by the automatic acceptance limit. This online questionnaire adapts its questions as the member provides answers, probing those areas where more information is needed, but skipping over anything not relevant to that specific member. In practice this means that you only get asked detailed questions about conditions or areas members disclose.

Compared to traditional methods our online assessment takes, on average, just 10 minutes to complete. It can be completed at a time and place that is convenient to the member. To date 73% of members have been accepted instantly at the end of the questionnaire and 89% of members have been accepted without the need for further medical evidence. We email the member to prompt them to come into our password protected to complete the job.  There are no long drawn out processes with us where doubt can creep in as to what cover the individual has.  That reduces risk for the scheme sponsor and the adviser.

In the minority of cases where we do require further evidence we will try to obtain this from the member direct rather than their GP, in order to speed the process up. If particular tests are needed, we will arrange for a nurse to visit the member at a time and location of their convenience. The results of the screening will be available to Ellipse within 2 working days.

Only rarely will we need a report from a GP. In these cases, once we have the members signed consent form we will arrange for a dedicated team to request and manage the process from start to finish. The average time to a decision for all members including those not accepted and requiring further evidence is 5 days.

To keep advisers and employers in the loop, an assessment update report is sent out on a weekly basis summarising of all the assessments and evidence - gathering that has occurred on a scheme and its current status.

This video interview gives a member’s view on how much more user-friendly our online process is than traditional, paper-based underwriting.  

Kieran Stratton

Individual Assessment Manager