Defaqto’s Star Ratings for 2008 have been more widely adopted by providers than ever before. The ratings, which have become the most authoritative and impartial guide to product quality available, cover products in the banking, protection, investment, pension and general insurance areasIn January Defaqto undertook the huge task of analysing the quality of just under 2,200 products in 24 separate product areas from 550 different suppliers. Defaqto used a set of quality criteria to assess each product in each particular area. From this analysis Defaqto was able to score each product and then assign it a Star Rating. The ratings ranged from five stars down to one star.
In total Defaqto assigned 252 Five Star ratings, 360 Four Stars, 571 Three Stars, 498 Two Stars and 511 One Star.
Defaqto licenses companies to use the rating in their promotional material and so far this year, Defaqto has licensed the use of 140 Five Star Ratings.
Brian Brown, Head of Insight at Defaqto said: “A Five Star rating enables companies to demonstrate to consumers that their products have reached the highest tier of quality. The rating, with its associated logo, is becoming a well-known statement of product quality in the market as more and more companies adopt it into their marketing plans.
“With the ever-growing emphasis on product cost, product quality has been in danger of being excluded from the purchase decision. A Five Star Rating helps to address this imbalance by identifying for consumers products which have been independently assessed for quality.”
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Main Star Rated Product Groups
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| Credit Cards |
Current Accounts |
Home Insurance |
Motor Insurance |
| Pet Insurance |
Travel Insurance |
Payment Protection |
SIPPs |
| Offshore Bonds |
Onshore Bonds |
Critical Illness |
Income Protection |
-Ends
For further information contact:
Defaqto Limited
Brian Brown, Chris Johnston or Luci Mylward
01844 295 454
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The Association of British Insurers’s publication [1] giving guidance to insurers on the treatment of non-disclosure, provides a platform to rebuild adviser and consumer confidence in protection products, according to financial research company Defaqto.
The guidance will result in more claims being paid for Critical Illness, Income Protection and Life insurance where medical information has not been disclosed but not deliberately withheld.
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2007 has been an indifferent year for the UK protection industry. To a some extent the malaise has been the cause and effect of the price war, but the influences of ‘higher beings’ have also played a part.
To start with, HMRC pulled the rug from under the feet of pension term assurance. Sadly, the many millions of pounds spent by insurers developing propositions was ultimately wasted money. If only that money been spent on reinventing income protection insurance!
As the protection industry adopted the ABI’s statement of best practice for critical illness insurance the Financial Ombudsman Service chose to have a pop at the industry. In an interview broadcast on BBC Watchdog on 11th April, Chief Ombudsman, Walter Merricks, said, “On the figures we’ve got it appears that one in five of the people who’ve got CI insurance policies may have policies that are actually invalid.” I’m not sure what figures he’s got but he could be correct if people claim for things that aren’t covered or failed in their duty of disclosure. Perhaps the FOS believes that the best way to avoid complaints is to create an environment where people don’t buy products in the first place!
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