My claims experience with Guardian

As advisers, we are always told in annual claims reports what number of claims are accepted, what number of claims are declined, and what amount of money is paid. However, I thought it was important to tell you a story about how a claim was paid.

Because if I’m honest, I think the how is more important than the what.

My name is Marcus Speirs, I’m a protection specialist with over 20 years of financial services experience, and I’m the founder of 3 Pillars Financial Planning.

There was nothing extraordinary about our clients. A husband and wife with 2 children. The husband worked and the wife didn’t.

We recommended life cover, as part of a full recommendation, as we knew the wife wouldn’t be able to pay the mortgage and bills if the worst was to happen to the husband.

We recommended Guardian’s Life Protection because of the quality of the cover, the terminal illness definition and how that gave the clients peace of mind.

Unfortunately, one morning we get a call and I hear the words, “my husband has died what do I do?”

Our client is now staring down the barrel of a mortgage that she can’t pay. We call Guardian immediately to help her start a claim.

After submitting the claim, as you’d expect, we waited for Guardian to request the death certificate, assess the claim, speak to the GP, and complete the usual admin tasks – as any provider would.

We found that when Guardian had gone to the GP for the information on cause of death and medical history, the GP wasn’t forthcoming with the information that Guardian needed to process the claim.

We and Guardian continued to try and engage with a GP who didn’t see the importance or the urgency of what was being requested. Guardian, myself and my client became increasingly keen to find a solution.

However, this is where this story changes direction.

Guardian decided to go a little bit off the beaten track and think a little bit outside the box.

As Guardian weren’t getting, after multiple requests, all the information they needed from the GP, they asked me for permission to speak to the deceased’s wife.

Now, to say I was surprised, and a little sceptical, was an understatement. In 20 years of doing this job, and having worked for an insurer as well as being an adviser, I’d never heard of a Claims Specialist looking to speak to the partner or the spouse of a deceased client about medical history as part of a claim. Usually it would be dismissed as nothing more than “opinion” and that opinion might be different from a doctor’s.

I was a little bit nervous of what would be asked of our client’s widow. But, Guardian’s Claims Specialist was engaging, very sympathetic, easy to talk to, very knowledgeable and ultimately gave me the confidence that this could be a good thing.

They spoke to our client’s widow about her husband’s medical history and the death. And they got their opinion on why, what, who, and when on his medical history, his illness prior to death and his untimely death.

What happened next? Guardian used the information supplied by the client’s widow combined with the medical evidence they’d already received from the GP and were able to pay the claim

Regardless of what did or did not come from the GP, Guardian looked into all the information they already had and decided that there was enough to satisfy them from a conversation with my client’s widow to pay the claim.

Is this above and beyond? I would say so. Purely for its uniqueness in my experience. Is this everything that Consumer Duty expects when achieving the best outcomes for clients? I would say so.

This showed to me that Guardian absolutely 100% care about their clients. And it gave me more hope for the future on how we as an industry deal with claims, the information that’s provided to pay those claims and most importantly how we deal with people who have suffered the worst.

We as an industry are very, very reliant on others to help us – from GPs and beyond. But when somebody takes responsibility, when somebody says “I know it’s not my job but I believe it needs to be done” and does it so well, I think that this can give you nothing but confidence in that insurer.

It gives you confidence that your client is with the right insurer. That they’re with an insurer that will do what’s needed at the time it’s needed.

I will recommend Guardian to clients for peace of mind, theirs and mine.

Why would I risk recommending anyone else?

Hear more from Marcus

Recently, Chris McDonald, one of our Business Development Managers, sat down with Marcus to discuss this claim.

This story is real but we’ve kept the client anonymous for confidentiality.