The Research Department uses data from its Aequos database to analyse office packages, loan payment protection and high street travel insurance in its latest product review

Office package
Commercial package policies are available from most of the major insurers, with office policies among the most widely available.

These policies have many more features and benefits than personal lines policies, so we have limited our analysis to some of the major covers.

Important features of these policies include cover for the office contents, accidental damage (AD) cover for office business machines, business interruption, glass, money and legal expenses.

The Allianz Cornhill Complete Office policy leads the field, along with NIG's Office policy. Those from the other leading insurers form a pack that is some way behind. Key features of the Allianz policy include:

  • All risks cover as standard, including accidental damage to business machines
  • Business interruption (BI) cover as standard, with the level of cover required selectable by the insured (SI)
  • £2m of public liability cover
  • Computer cover available as an optional extra
  • £5,000 of cover for money, with a £300 limit on money left out of the safe overnight
  • £25,000 of legal expenses cover included as standard
  • £200 standard excess for contents and glass sections, with no excess for money claims.

    High street travel insurance
    Those people currently booking their summer holidays will almost certainly be offered travel insurance by their travel agent. Lower premiums can be found just by walking into almost any bank down the high street, but how does the cover on offer compare?

    There are usually only a few key considerations for most travellers when buying travel insurance, other than price. These are medical expenses, cancellation cover, baggage cover and personal liability (a must for visits to the US).

    Most high street travel insurance policies offer a good package of the standard covers, with Lloyds TSB edging very slightly ahead of its rivals. Key features of the policy include:

  • £10m of medical expenses and £35,000 of personal accident cover
  • £5,000 of cancellation cover
  • £1,500 of baggage cover (with a single article limit of £300)
  • £2m of liability cover
  • £25,000 of legal expenses cover
  • £35 excess.

    Personal loan repayment Protection
    With summer approaching many people will be taking out personal loans to pay for home or garden improvements, or maybe a new car. A good proportion of borrowers will opt to protect their repayments against sickness or unemployment. But how does the cover from some of the major lenders compare? Key features of the better policies in this market include "back to day one" cover for both accident and sickness (AS) claims and unemployment (U) claims, benefits accruing on a daily, rather than monthly basis, and short excess periods before claims become payable.

    The policy from Yorkshire Bank (underwritten by London & Edinburgh) is the market leader, followed very closely by Lloyds TSB. Key benefits of the Yorkshire Bank cover include:

  • No initial exclusion period if transferring cover from a previous policy (important if using the loan to consolidate other debts)
  • Disability benefits paid until the loan debt is cleared, rather than for a fixed period
  • Unemployment benefits payable for 18 months, rather than the 12 months that almost all other lenders provide
  • No exclusions for the major claim types - backache, stress and mental illness.

    Notes

  • These charts use The Research Department's unique Data Numerical Analysis (DNA) scoring system
  • DNA illustrates the relative positioning of a product based on selected criteria
  • The criteria used in this chart are a representative sample only and may not be relevant in all cases
  • Other criteria are available and may give different results
  • When used to match products to a client's circumstances, DNA can show how closely a product matches those requirements.

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