All affected customers will benefit from the most up to date policy wording we currently offer, with most of these having the additional benefit of simpler language.
Where there’s any material difference between the old and new policy coverage, we’ll flag this to you as their insurance advisor through the following link which will contain a Notice to Policyholders and Important Information regarding changes to cover before the migration commences. These documents will also be included with the renewal of each affected policy.
Where any policy currently includes a bespoke Endorsement, we’ll ensure that each Endorsement is redrafted so it’s still appropriate for the replacement policy.
Why do these Legacy Products still exist?
The policy coverage for Legacy Products is generally similar to other products that are currently open for new business and therefore offer similar customer value for money. However, each of them either:
Didn’t capture risk information that would normally be needed to re-issue the policy on the equivalent current policy
Have slightly different coverage in one or more of the extensions of cover that made them more difficult to re-issue onto current products
Are Non-eTraded versions of products that are now only available via eTrade
Were part of a group of customers with a bespoke (‘Freeform’) endorsement that would have required individual re-drafting
Despite these issues, due to the wider change to our systems, it’s now critical that we take action to move these policyholders to the most up to date equivalent product.
Will it be possible to move all customers to an equivalent current product?
Though the majority of customers on our previous Legacy Products can be moved or re-issued onto current products, this may not be the case for a small number of customers. If this isn’t possible for any reason, we commit to contacting you at least 60 days ahead of renewal to inform you that renewal will not be possible.
Where we need more information we’ll work with you to obtain this from the client.
If there’s no suitable alternative contract that the customer is eligible for, we’ll give at least 60 days’ notice of non-renewal and supply any information (such as confirmed claims experiences) that may be required to arrange alternative cover.
How will the renewal premium be impacted?
The pricing of any given risk at renewal will depend on a number of factors including:
Market conditions for the type of cover concerned
The customer’s claims experience
The customer’s current price compared to our current view of the normal price for that risk
We’ll ensure that affected customers will be treated in line with our other customers to ensure that they’re not prejudiced due to the migration from one product to another.
For customers who are being migrated to another ‘Non-eTraded’ product, their renewal premium will be assessed using our normal approach of looking at the claims experience and risk information of the particular client.
For customers migrating to an Auto Rated eTrade product, we’ll compare their expiring premium to our current new business price but if this is different we’ll limit the change at renewal in line with the rules that would apply to the other existing customers.
Will these changes impact the commission on any policies?
Our intention is that commission should remain unaltered when policies are re-issued. If any concerns are identified relating to commission level on any individual policy we’ll discuss this with you as part of our normal renewal negotiations.
How can I find out more about this project or how it may affect my customers or me?
If you want to know more specific details of how this project might impact you or your customers please raise this with your normal AXA Branch contacts.
Will customers be transferred to replacement policies mid-term as a big bang or as and when they are due for renewal?
Customer’s policies won’t be affected until the first renewal date after that specific product type starts to be migrated. Where policies need to be re-issued onto a new policy this will apply from renewal date.
My customer’s policy is subject to a Rate Stability Clause/Long Term Agreement/Low Claims Rebate – how will this be impacted?
Where a customer benefits from any specifically negotiated Commercial or Coverage benefits, the replacement policy will benefit from the same terms and conditions. If any changes are required we’ll discuss this with you as part of the renewal negotiations.
My customer pays by instalments – will they need to fill in a new DDM?
We’ll automatically transfer any existing Instalment Account to the replacement policy so there will be no need for additional actions for you or your customer.
FAQs - Flat specific
Will this impact the level of Excess applicable to my customer's policy?
As part of this exercise, we are bringing existing customers up to the minimum level of excess that we would normally offer for new business, and this includes an increase in the minimum Escape of Water excess to £650 from a previous level of £500. Could we please ask you to check your customers schedule to check the impact on them individually.
Will you be repricing policies as part of this exercise?
No – we have a renewal review process that considers the renewal terms in the light of the customers past claims performance, and this will apply in the same way as for our other customers, but we will not be re-rating policies solely because they are migrating from one contract to another.
On New PPP, Employers’ Liability (EL) is an optional cover that is subject to an extra change – Will this be applied to migrating Blocks of Flats policies?
No - if the customer had Employers’ Liability (EL) cover previously, we would add the same level of cover at a nominal £0.01 charge.
What documents will you issuing for the renewal?
Migrated Flats policy renewals will be issued by e-mails with a Renewal Schedule, new Policy Wording plus 3 additional documents:
Key Changes Summary
Important Notice to Policyholders
Accidental Release of Asbestos Endorsement
FAQs Business Combined or Contractors Combined Specific
My customer’s policy did not include an Asbestos Exclusion on the PL section, but the new one does?
Some long-standing COM policies did not incorporate an exclusion of Liability arising out of Asbestos under the Public liability section. Where this is the case, we have included an endorsement extending the PL section to include £1m of cover for liability arising out of the accidental release of asbestos on a ‘Claims Made’ basis.
Why have you have increased my customer’s Public liability Limit of Indemnity to £2m?
We have identified that a small number of long-standing policies still had a £1m Limit of Indemnity under the Public liability / Public and products liability sections. As part of this exercise, we have made the decision to automatically increase the Limit to £2m with effect from renewal but have not applied any specific additional premium for this change.
Why are AXA not migrating all COM policies to your latest wording?
There are a small number of policies with additional covers (Personal Accident and Specialist Engineering covers) where further development work is required to offer cover under the “Business Combined (CMB) or Contractors Combined (CMC)” contract. Any policy including these covers will be migrated at a later date to be advised.
FAQs: ‘Non-eTrade’ Products Specific
Is AXA no longer offering a package policy for Shops, Offices and Surgeries?
We continue to offer our eTrade “Retailers” and “Office & Surgery” products via Software houses and the AXA Extranet. The products that are closing are the old legacy equivalent products.
Why are you no longer offering a dedicated ‘Working From Home’ product?
The range of work activities that customers now undertake from home has expanded massively in recent years. We therefore believe that the cover arranged for many of these customers could be more specific to their needs within our “Tradesmen and Professionals”, Small Business Combined” or “Professionals Combined” products depending on the range of business activities they undertake.
Our customer is happy with their current product and terms – can we not leave the policy in force?
We are sorry but these products are being closed so this is not possible.
If we want to arrange alternative cover on one of your eTrade products can the acceptance and premiums be guaranteed?
No – Where customers fit the acceptance criteria of one of our alternative products, we would very much appreciate the opportunity to offer a quotation for their insurance arrangements but as the administration of our eTrade products is automated, we cannot guarantee the acceptance, rating or terms will be matched on an alternative product.
Would our customer need to disclose to other insurers that they have had any previous insurances cancelled or declined”?
No – we are not declining to renew the insurances of any particular customer. It is simply that these products are being closed.
Does this mean AXA are closing down their Shop, Office, Surgery, Working From Home and ‘Per Capita Rated’ Liability products?
No – We continue to offer both renewals and new business on our Connect Retailers, Offices and Surgeries and ‘Tradesmen and Professionals products. The only products being closed are the legacy products with product designations of SHO, SUR, WFH, VPS, VPG and PCL. The only product that is affected that does not have a more modern equivalent is Working From Home (WFH).
Why did you decide to close these products?
There are two main reasons.
- Our brokers generally prefer to transact these smaller package products via their chosen Software House, or over the AXA Extranet. These products were either traded on the old ABR platform or manually.
- The customers were not benefiting from all of the latest enhancements to our products and propositions and the cost of updating and renewing these products was disproportionately high compared to the small number of customers involved.
These products have all been closed to new business for many years and we therefore felt the time had come to close the products for renewals as well.
Why did you not transfer these customers to your current new business products?
Because of the age of these products, the rating information that was originally captured is not adequate to allow us to re-issue these polices onto their more up to date equivalent and furthermore the acceptance criteria are not the same, meaning that any migration would have been incomplete and would have required additional manual capture of additional rating information. In addition to these issues, as mentioned above most of our brokers have indicated that they prefer to administer business on their software house of choice rather than the Extranet - but the limitations of the systems mean we could only have migrated policies to the AXA Extranet therefore not meeting the needs of many of our brokers. We therefore decided it would be better to ask brokers to replace these risks onto a current product via their preferred software house.
Would these customers be acceptable to AXA as new business?
Though we cannot guarantee that all of these customers are acceptable under our new business products, ideally, we would like to continue to insure as many of them as we can. We would therefore be very grateful if you would consider obtaining quotations for these customers on our Connect Retailers, Offices and Surgeries and ‘Tradesmen and Professionals products.
How will I know which customers are affected?
We will email you individually regarding each customer eight weeks before their policy would have been due for renewal informing you that we will not be able to offer renewal. With this email we will also include full details of your customers claims experience during the time they were insured with AXA. We will then send you a final reminder 7 days prior to expiry of cover.
How can I be sure I have the most up to date claims information for my customers?
We appreciate that there is always a risk that a claim has been notified to AXA directly by the customer – or that you may not be aware of the final position on a past claim – but that you would like to have this information to hand to help you to replace the insurances for these customers. We will therefore be sending you your customers full claims experience during the time that the policy was in force.
Business Plan Plus Policies Specific FAQs
My customer’s policy did not include an Asbestos Exclusion on the PL section, but the new one does?
Some long-standing Business Plan policies did not include our normal exclusion of Liability arising out of escape of Asbestos. We are no longer able to offer this cover without any restrictions but for policyholders where that was the case, we have included an endorsement extending the PL section to include £1m of cover arising out of accidental release of asbestos on a 'Claims Made' basis.
Why have you have increased my customer’s Public liability Limit of Indemnity to £2m?
We have identified that a small number of long-standing policies still had a £1m Limit of Indemnity under the Public liability / Public and products liability sections. As part of this exercise, we have made the decision to automatically increase the Limit to £2m with effect from renewal but have not applied any additional premium for this change.
Are all AXA Business Plan Plus policies being re-issued onto your latest wording?
Yes – though it has been identified that a small number of cases would be better served on our Contractors Combined (CMC) policy. We will inform you individually where this is the case.
Why have you reviewed commissions?
Business Plan policies were subject to a flat rate on commission whereas the new Business Combined has sectional commissions which include a lower commission rate paid on Employers Liability. Additionally, some Business Plan policies had non-standard commissions arrangements. Based on our ongoing review and assessment of distributor remuneration through a customer value lens we have decided to change the commission payable for these policies in line with your current TOBA. The exception to this are cases where we have negotiated with you for reduced or Nil commissions in return a reduced premium; in these cases we have left the commissions unaltered.
Contractors Choice (CCH) to Contractors Combined (CMC)
My customer’s policy did not include an Asbestos Exclusion on the PL section, but the new one does?
Some long-standing Contractors Choice policies did not include our normal exclusion of Liability arising out of escape of Asbestos. We are no longer able to offer this cover without any restrictions but for policyholders where that was the case, we have included an endorsement extending the PL section to include £1m of cover arising out of accidental release of asbestos on a 'Claims Made' basis.
Why have you have increased my customer’s Public liability Limit of Indemnity to £2m?
We have identified that a small number of long-standing policies still had a £1m Limit of Indemnity under the Public liability / Public and products liability sections. As part of this exercise, we have made the decision to automatically increase the Limit to £2m with effect from renewal but have not applied any additional premium for this change.
Are all AXA Contractors Choice (CCH) policies being re-issued onto your latest wording?
Yes – all of our Contractors Choice (CCH) customers are being re-issued onto our Contractors Combined (CMC) wording.
Why are you asking for Wages, Sub-Contractor Payments, Hired in Plant charges and for updated turnover?
These policies were originally underwritten based on full underwriting information – but since then they have been renewed and adjusted largely based on the turnover. To issue the replacement product we will require an update of the full information originally provided – and in view of how long some of these polices have been in force including through the major impacts of covid – we are taking this opportunity to ensure that the polices are based on an up-to-date turnover estimate as well.
What will happen to my customer’s premium?
Where the estimates are still as previously supplied, the premium will be based on the expiring premium with a renewal pricing adjustment based on the customers past claims history. If the estimates have risen or fallen, the renewal terms offered will be adjusted accordingly.
My customer had free Personal Accident (PA) cover under their old policy which you don’t offer under Contractors Combined?
Where customers qualified for ‘free’ Personal Accident (PA) cover for Principals and Directors, we will include the same cover under their new policy.
What happens to the previous extra cover within Contractors All Risks (CAR) for Stock and Office Contents?
Where the previous policy included Contractors All Risks (CAR) with this special extension, we have included the same cover under the replacement policy.
What happens to the previous “Property Developers Contingency” cover for up to seven days in certain circumstances?
Our “Contractors Combined (CMC)” policy offers the same temporary cover as the previous policy, but this is now available for up to 21 days. Full cover can still be offered under a standalone policy where this is required.
Why have you reviewed commissions?
Contractors' Choice policies were subject to a flat rate on commission whereas the Contractors Combined (CMC) has sectional commissions which include a lower commission rate paid on Employers Liability. Additionally, some Contractors Choice policies had non-standard commissions arrangements. Based on our ongoing review and assessment of distributor remuneration through a customer value lens we have decided to change the commission payable for these policies in line with your current TOBA. The exception to this are cases where we have negotiated with you for reduced or Nil commissions in return a reduced premium; in these cases, we have left the commissions unaltered.
Are all AXA Goods in transit (GIT) policies being re-issued onto your latest wording?
No - not all Goods in transit (GIT) policies being re-issued; only those standalone GIT policies that are covering policyholders for the carriage of own goods, or for their own Sendings.
