Royal London reports average protection underwriting turnaround of 1.5 working days
- Average underwriting turnaround now 1.5 working days
- All underwriting work assessed within four working days
- Underwriting team has grown by 20% since the beginning of 2025, with specialist large-case underwriting team doubling in size
Royal London has reported an average protection underwriting turnaround of 1.5 working days, with all underwriting work assessed within four working days.
The figures follow continued investment in underwriting capacity and improvements to medical evidence gathering and the application journey, helping advisers progress clients' protection applications more efficiently.
Service remains a significant issue across the protection market. The Protection Distributors Group's Protection Insights Report 2026 found that 59% of advisers believe inefficient underwriting processes are a barrier to writing more protection business.
Against this backdrop, the business has continued to invest to support continued growth. The underwriting team has grown by 20% since the beginning of 2025, while its specialist large-case underwriting team has doubled in size from six to 12.
Investment has also continued across the underwriting and application journey. Recent improvements include the incorporation of iGPR's Magic Service to speed up the return of medical evidence from GPs and reduce the need for follow-up requests. Early insight shows the average turnaround time for receiving medical evidence through the service is now five days, compared with several weeks previously.
Further changes include enabling future start dates online for applications submitted via Protection Platform and allowing more time to start a plan after acceptance terms are issued without needing a Declaration of Health.
Craig Paterson, Chief Underwriter at Royal London, said:
"Advisers need a service they can rely on, with cases handled quickly and consistently and clear support to help customers access the protection they need.
"As our protection business has grown, we've continued investing in the people, technology and underwriting capabilities needed to support that growth. We're now seeing the impact of that investment, with average underwriting turnaround at 1.5 working days.
"Alongside delivering faster turnaround times, we've been looking across the protection journey at where we can remove unnecessary friction and make things easier for advisers and their clients. We've grown our underwriting team by 20% since the beginning of 2025, while investment in technology, medical evidence and our digital journeys is helping us make practical improvements across the application process."
Dave Fair, Mortgage Adviser at Edinburgh-based Howdengrange Financial Services, said:
"In recent times the improved speed of service from Royal London has been a great help to my business, ensuring quicker replies and outcomes for clients to enable applications to progress quicker. The implementation of IGPR as well has helped speed up the process for those applications that require this."
For further information please contact:
Neil Cameron, PR Manager
- Email: neil.cameron@royallondon.com
- Mob: 07919 171969
About Royal London
Royal London is the UK's largest customer-owned life, pensions, and investment company, and one of the top 30 mutuals globally*. With over 160 years of heritage and no external shareholders, we're able to take a long-term view, focusing on supporting better outcomes for our customers.
Today, Royal London looks after 8.4 million life and pension policies, with £212 billion of assets under management and over 5,000 colleagues**. In 2026, we shared £199 million of our profits with approximately 2.4 million eligible customers.
We invest in partnerships that reflect our values, including being the only Founding Partner of the first British & Irish Lions Women's Team, supporting women's and girls' rugby across grassroots and elite levels to help develop the next generation of players and coaches. All driven by our commitment to doing what's right for our customers.
Royal London works for you.
Discover more at royallondon.com.
*Based on total 2024 premium income. International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation Global data, 2026.
**Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2026.
