The additional questions will focus on the type of weight loss treatment that has been prescribed by a medical professional, how long it has been used for and what the impact of the weight loss treatment has been.
UnderwriteMe said this would ensure that all necessary information is recorded so that insurers can “make informed and accurate decisions for individuals seeking cover, and, where possible, offer buy-now decisions”.
The company said that currently, seven insurers are offering buy-now decisions, subject to the answers provided.
Weight loss treatments like Ozempic and Mounjaro have been growing in popularity, with Local Government data suggesting that around two-and-a-half million people are using weight loss injections – with sales expected to continue growing.
Nilesh Patel, chief revenue and customer officer at UnderwriteMe, said: “Protection insurance is often highly dependent upon medical underwriting, and after speaking to our insurer partners, we collectively felt it was the right time to enhance the questions on the Protection Platform so that our insurer partners can continue to innovate and evolve their underwriting philosophies in this area on our platform.
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“Underwriting efficiency and accuracy are key for advisers and the Protection Platform continues to offer highly competitive STP (straight-through processing) rates year-on-year. We are the first in the market with these underwriting changes, but we expect others to follow.”
Chris Reed, executive marketing director at Protect Line, commented: “Insurance has a reputation for being slow to change, especially around underwriting. The world our customers live in is moving much faster – from the rapid rise of weight loss treatments to the way Gen Z think about health and lifestyle – and our questions haven’t always kept pace. UnderwriteMe’s enhancements are a clear sign that this is changing. By asking smarter, more nuanced questions about clinically supervised weight loss, they’re helping distributors like us secure fair, timely outcomes for customers who are simply trying to take control of their health.
“It’s also a great example of Consumer Duty in action. UnderwriteMe, their insurers and reinsurers have clearly worked hard behind the scenes to make this possible, and it shows that a once-sleepy industry is now very much awake.”
