2008
(24/01/2008) Global survey highlights that the UK has higher levels of life cover than other European counterparts
January 24 2008. Buying a home and professional advice also seen as triggers for UK adults to buy life cover.
In the UK, around 71% of UK adults now have at least one life insurance policy which is significantly higher than adults in Italy where just 45% have at least one and in Germany and Spain where only 53% in each country do, according to research from AXA.
In the UK, buying a home (41%) and professional advice (11%) are seen as key triggers for adults to purchase insurance products, whereas, in Hong Kong (2%) and Japan (5%), buying a home is much less of a trigger and professional advice (Hong Kong, 14% and Japan just 8%) is less important too.
However, despite the majority of people now having some form of life policy, the AXA study reveals that few UK adults are adequately covered, with just 20% having income protection to tide them through periods of sickness or unemployment, despite worsening economic conditions.
Just over 40% of UK adults said the main reason for taking out a life policy was that they bought it with their mortgage, compared to a global average of just 20%.
When it comes to being prepared for life risks, just two fifths of us in the UK (40%) have health, or medical insurance or some form of disability insurance.
Of those electing not to take out life insurance, 23% said they thought it was too expensive, 21% believed they didn't need it, 11% said they weren't concerned about it yet and 10% said they'd never thought about it.
Graham Harvey, Managing Director, Protection at AXA, states, "While it is encouraging to see the majority of UK adults now have a life insurance policy, the reality is many people are still underinsured in key areas, particularly in the event of unemployment."
Graham continued: "It is particularly worrying to see how many people say they think protection insurance is either too expensive or that they don't need it and this underlines the educational job that is still required to ensure more UK adults view adequate protection as a key part of their long term financial planning. With the housing market slowing, the trigger of buying a home will further decrease; this further highlights the need for individuals to seek independent financial advice for their protection needs."
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More information
If you are a journalist and require further information contact:-
Helene Barnes AXA Life press office +44 (0)117 989 5161
Paul Riddell AXA Life press office +44 (0) 1256 798442
Notes to Editors:
*Research was conducted among a sample of 4009 adults aged 25 - 65 across a sample of 10 major economically developed countries (Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the USA).
The research was conducted using CATI telephone interviews between 28th March - 24th May 2007.
About AXA
The AXA Protection Account was launched in 2004 and products include Life Cover, Critical Illness Cover, Income Protection Cover, Life or Earlier Critical Illness Cover, Mortgage Income Protection Cover, Accident Sickness & Unemployment Cover and Business Cover: Keyperson Protection, Shareholder Protection and Partnership Protection.
AXA Protection accepts over 80% of lives at normal rates and declines less than 2% of lives. AXA Protection was the first UK insurer to launch full tele-underwriting nationwide and 2007 statistics show just 1.23% non-disclosure for tele-underwritten applications.
AXA Protection was winner of What Mortgage Magazine's award for Best Life Insurance Provider in 2007, has a five star Defaqto rating and was ranked number one for application turnaround times by LifeSearch in October 2007.
AXA UK is a part of the AXA Group. AXA Group is a worldwide leader in Financial Protection. AXA's operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. IFRS revenues amounted to €94 billion for the full year 2007.
The AXA ordinary share is listed on Compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISIN FR0000120628 - Bloomberg: CS FP - Reuters: AXAF.PA). The American Depository Share is also listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol AXA.
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