John Lewis teams up with Munich Re’s Digital Partners, Sedgwick and ICE InsureTech for home insurance proposition

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The high-end retail giant hopes to deliver a new home insurance product early next year targeted at a wider customer base as a result of the partnership

John Lewis & Partners has teamed up with Munich Re-backed firm Digital Partners, loss adjustor Sedgwick, ICE InsureTech and the Hood Group to create a home insurance product for its customers.

The collaboration will see Digital Partners offering its insurance expertise, Sedgwick managing claims handling, ICE InsureTech providing the policy administration solution and the Hood Group managing customer service and queries in the UK.

Although John Lewis has an existing home insurance business with standard policies underwritten by RSA, it plans to deliver a new product from early next year targeted at a wider audience.

All new non-specialist home insurance policies from 1 February 2021 will be offered via the new partnership, and specialist home insurance will be continued to be offered through Covea.

Thomas Blunck, Member of the board of management, Munich Re, said: “This partnership highlights Munich Re’s continued commitment to building new insurance solutions, meeting customers’ growing demand for flexible products, immediate fulfilment and coverage.”

It follows John Lewis exiting its travel insurance product in March last year with partner Ageas.

Big ambition

Pippa Wicks, executive director at John Lewis, said: “As part of our new partnership plan, we have a big ambition to grow our financial services offering to customers over the next five years.”

John Lewis has offered home insurance for fourteen years, Wicks said that it hopes to “reimagine” its home insurance offering to provide customers with coverage that is reassuring, fairer and “more relevant than ever before”.

Meanwhile, Neil Gibson, Sedgwick International UK’s chief operating officer, added: “This new partnership is an exciting venture for us. By using our centralised dedicated customer claims platform, combined with automated policy validation and settlement, we will be able to provide John Lewis customers with a reimagined digital solution that makes claims easy for everyone.”

ICE InsureTech is John Lewis’s chosen policy provider, Andrew Passfield, chief executive said: “We have extensive knowledge in the insurance, data and insurtech world and our platform and team will arm John Lewis for the challenge of reinventing the home insurance space.”

Simon Hood, chief executive, Hood Group said it shares John Lewis’s vision to transform home insurance and look forward to playing our part in making that happen.