Bank of Ireland paid out almost €97m in protection claims in 2014, Bank has paid out over €480m to customers in the past five years

Bank of Ireland paid out almost €97m in protection claims in 2014

Bank has paid out over €480m to customers in the past five years

Bank of Ireland Life customers and their families received almost €97 million in life, serious illness and income protection claims in 2014. This brings the total payout to over €480 million in the last five years.

Bernard Walsh, Head of Pensions and Investments at Bank of Ireland Life, said: “These claims statistics highlight the important role that life, serious illness and income protection plays in helping customers cope with the financial difficulties that can arise due to serious illness, injury or death. The financial consequences of a serious illness or death in a family can be devastating so having a protection plan in place to cope with such unforeseen events makes a real difference to people’s lives at a stressful time.

“During 2014, Bank of Ireland paid over €64 million to the families of life insurance customers who died, and over €23 million to customers with a serious illness. The highest payout for life insurance was €1,399,486 while the average payout was €61,704 for men and €48,397 for women. Having a protection plan is a good thing but it’s equally important to have an appropriate plan. The average payouts are quite low which might indicate that people may have less cover than they need. Everyone’s circumstances are different and people need to think about how much they would need to supplement their family’s monthly income if the worst was to happen and also, how long that financial support would be needed. When we meet with customers, that’s exactly what we help customers explore.

“In 2014, cancer remained the most common reason for death claims at 48% followed by heart illness at 18%. Cancer accounted for 56% of serious illness claims and, again, heart illness is the second highest at 20%. In terms of age profile around 80% of the claimants were aged 59 or under, and 32% of claims arose from claimants who had policies for less than 10 years.26% of income protection claims were for psychiatric conditions, with back and muscular injury accounting for a further 25%.

Other key findings from 2014 claims include:

Life cover claims:

61% of claims for life cover were male while 39% were female
46% of claims occurred in the first 10 years of the policy
66% were for cancer and heart related deaths

Serious illness claims:

The average serious illness claim paid out was €65,507 for men and €72,177 for women
59% of serious illness claims were male, an increase of 3% on the previous year
41% of serious illness claims were female which is a decrease of 3% in pay outs since the previous year
80% of claims were for people aged 59 and under

Income protection claims:

77% of all claimants were female, an increase of 4% on 2013
The highest percentage of claims were for psychiatric conditions at 26%, although this represented a decrease of 7% on the previous year

”A death or serious illness can affect people at all stages of life. Last year, the youngest protection claims came from a customer in her twenties. Putting a Plan B in place in the event of death or serious illness should be a priority and the cost of such cover is cheaper than people may think. Every year we insure our homes, our cars and sometimes even our luggage, so protecting the loss of your income if the unthinkable was to happen makes sense. We’ve seen steady increases in the number of our customers protecting themselves, particularly when they have dependants. We meet customers every day and help them put their Plan B in place and they tell us that it feels good to know it’s sorted” concluded Bernard Walsh.

For further information on Bank of Ireland Life products and cover polices visit www.bankofireland.com/protection

ENDS