One of the UK's most recognisable names in the life insurance and healthcare market has disappeared over recent months. This winter, PruHealth and PruProtect have become Vitality, an innovative and high quality provider of health and life insurance.
If you are looking to compare life insurance and health protection it is likely that Vitality will be one of your top choices. Keep reading to find out more.
Vitality - aiming to be the leading protection provider in the UK
Over the last three months PruHealth and PruProtect have been rebranded as Vitality following the purchase of the group by a leading South African insurer.
The Johannesburg-listed company Discovery increased its share in Prudential Health Holdings in 2010 before acquiring the remaining 25 per cent stake in late 2014.
The provider now looks after more than 800,000 people, occupying the number four position in the private health insurance market. The group receives combined annual premiums of approximately £480 million and annualised new business in excess of £110 million.
Discovery CEO Adrian Gore said: “Discovery’s increased investment in the UK has always been part of our longer-term strategy. It will afford us the opportunity to realise our vision to further entrench our insurance model and to be recognised as the best protection provider in the UK.
"Being highly receptive to the needs of our clients, and highly engaged with them, mean that we are well placed to achieve our goal of substantially improving the health of two million people in the UK by 2020. Prudential has been a vital partner in this process and it’s only with their help over the past decade, and their ongoing support, has this been possible.”
How the change to Vitality will affect you
PruHealth and PruProtect are to be rebranded and consolidated under a single insurance brand called 'Vitality'. In addition, 'VitalityHealth' will be used in the private medical insurance market, and 'VitalityLife' in the long term protection market.
If you are an existing Pru customer then you will begin to see your correspondence and direct debit payments change to Vitality.
If you are undertaking a life insurance comparison or you're shopping around for health insurance then Vitality is likely to be one of your choices.
Why Vitality is different to other life and health insurance products
Unlike many companies which underwrite your policy based solely on your age and health status, Vitality takes a rather different view.
The Vitality model offers incentives for you to live more healthily. It promotes engagement in wellness and then actuarially and clinically determines the effect of this engagement on your mortality, morbidity and health risk. Vitality then prices these effects dynamically into the insurance premium over time.
In simple terms, if you live a healthier lifestyle and undertake more exercise then you could see your insurance premiums change in your favour.
Vitality also offers a range of other benefits. For example, in November 2014 the Daily Telegraph reported that Vitality customers would receive free coffee at Starbucks if they walked, ran or cycled a certain distance every week. The company also offers free cinema tickets for policy holders who log how much exercise they do as well as offering rewards for buying healthy food, monitored through Nectar cards.
