Hi everyone, I have Debbie Smith who is the Chief Medical Officer at Swiss Re with me to talk about the trends that she is spotting when it comes to income protection claims. I first met Debbie at the LUCID conference earlier this year and I found her presentation fascinating. So naturally I asked if she could come and share some of her findings with my listeners!

Debbie is sharing with us the trend that they are seeing that a higher BMI is often linked to long-term income protection claims. We are talking through what the data is showing, how this can be tricky to fully assess due to differences in medical record keeping and ways that the insurance industry can help people in a preventative and reactive way. 

The key takeaways:

• Claims data is showing that there is a link between long term IP claims and higher BMIs.
• Metabolic syndrome is quickly becoming a key area of focus for a person’s long term health.
• It’s important that we try to get the importance of income protection out to younger generations, who can often arrange this before health conditions start to develop.

Next time I will be joined by Paul Bevan and Rachel Edwards from Verisk to kick off 2024 with a deep dive into travel insurance underwriting. 

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors Octo Members.

If you want to know more about how to arrange protection insurance, take a look at my 13 hour CPD Protection Insurance in Practice course here and 1 hour CPD Protection Competency Exam here.