Learn more about Protectif
Built on Experience. Trusted for Results.
Protectif Benchmarking
In 2024, we concluded our most recent benchmarking study, to estimate the impact of implementing Protectif V3 on an insurance scheme. The findings indicated improvements in under-declaration rates, with associated reductions in large loss exposure and total incident rates. Based on this study, insurers could see up to a 20% reduction in overall loss ratio. Get in touch with us for more detailed demonstrations of how Protectif could impact your insurance book.
Estimated outcomes from 2024 Benchmarking Study, figures based on internal study results. Actual outcomes may vary.
Up to 20%
Reduction in
Loss Ratio
50%
Reduction in
Under-Declaration
25%
Reduction in
Total Incident Rate
50%
Reduction in Large
Loss Exposure
Protectif is built on a stability-focused, holistic approach to understanding medical risk profiles, ensuring transparency, fairness, and accuracy in the risk rating process. We deliver the following benefits for our clients:
Reduce Under-Declaration
Under-declaration is a well-documented issue in the travel insurance sector. Our medication-led approach reduces communication breakdown leading to under-declaration, and allows Protectif to explore connected conditions and understand a holistic medical overview.
Mitigate Large Loss Exposure
Protectif identifies high-risk individuals and rates pre-existing conditions before coverage is issued, allowing insurers to adjust premiums, apply exclusions, or decline coverage if necessary.
Platform for Growth
We enhance trust and transparency in the sales process, reducing claim disputes, and improving customer satisfaction. Insurers on Protectif reinvest in product innovation, expand into new markets, and build a strong reputation for reliability and fairness.
Improve Loss-Ratio Performance
By reducing the likelihood of unexpected claims and ensuring premiums accurately reflect the insured’s health risk, our clients can lower the frequency and cost of claims, which may contribute to a more favourable loss ratio and improved profitability.
A History of Performance and Transparency
In 2026 we’ll be celebrating 20 years of Protectif! Since 2006, we’ve worked hard to build our award-winning reputation and support profitability for our clients through the statistics below. We’re proud to be a long-term partner to many trusted insurers.
20.5M+
Customers Screened
£185M+
Premium Generated
19+
Years of Experience
74+
Protectif Schemes
Medication-Led
Protectif ratings utilise medications to understand condition stability
Protectif is all about the detail. By starting with medications and linking those to conditions we have a fuller profile of the management and stability of health. Therefore we’re able to quote a premium that accurately reflects the true risk. But our system only works if we keep abreast of the latest developments in treatment and medicines.
In our experience, medical risk rating tools that focus solely on declared conditions can sometimes lead to unintentional under-disclosure by customers—either due to forgetfulness or uncertainty about what needs to be declared. This is a known challenge within the travel insurance industry. Protectif has addressed this by incorporating prescribed medications into the risk assessment process since its inception, as many customers find it easier to reference their current medications than recall a full medical history.
On our database we have approximately 1500 medications, that are kept up to date in a constant feedback loop with charities and medical experts. Working with organisations that help people living with complex medical conditions enable us help make travel insurance more accessible for individuals with complex medical conditions.
Take the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. We developed a good working relationship with them and were told about a new treatment – Orkambi – that was being developed to treat certain mutations of cystic fibrosis. They kept us in the loop about the trials and approval process and when NICE gave the green light for it to be prescribed we were then fully aware of the implications. And sure enough, a few weeks later we had our first screening with a customer who had been prescribed Orkambi and we were able to offer cover.
Comprehensive Screening
Protectif risk ratings identify the true risk of a customer’s medical situation
We have more than 4,500 medical conditions in our database. This has helped the medical underwriting team develop 290 different questions sets. These allow us to make accurate risk assessments based on the condition we are investigating.
Keeping up to date with the latest medical research and treatments can be challenging, so that’s why we work with a wide range of specialist medical charities who help us understand how treatments are evolving and how they might impact on our risk assessments.
Listening to our customers is also important. If you look at a condition like ‘high blood pressure’ the feedback we received led us to add three types: High blood pressure, Raised blood pressure and Controlled blood pressure. It’s all about how the customer would describe the condition themselves. It’s about how they perceive it.
Our question sets are constantly reviewed, amended and simplified. We alter them as we learn about new treatments and conditions to make sure they remain relevant. As well as working with charity ambassadors, we also spend time on the call centre floor, listening to calls and taking on board the feedback we get from customers as they go through the screening process.
Enhanced Functionality
The functionality of Protectif is driven by our understanding of the customer experience
This helps us constantly polish and refine our question sets to make sure they are as clear and straightforward as possible.
For example, after a piece of work by our marketing team – who were researching the impact of reading ages on the language used in sales – we took a step back and looked at the language we were using during the screenings. With the average reading age in the UK estimated to be nine-years-old we realised that we needed to be able to convert complex medical questions into something anyone could understand.
So we decided to re-word and re-phrase some of our questions to make sure they were as easy as possible to understand. To make sure we capture any potential health risks we have developed our own ‘trigger questions’. As the name suggests, these questions are designed to trigger the need for a medical declaration.
Our Clients
For over 19 years, we’ve worked closely with our insurer clients to reduce under-declaration, improve medical risk rating accuracy, and support improved underwriting performance. Most importantly, we deliver excellent customer outcomes that have led to award recognition for some of our clients.
Protectif Bespoke Screenings
Not everyone fits neatly into boxes
A unique feature of Protectif is the ability to offer tailor-made, personal medical risk rating if a decision can’t be made after the standard screening process. It’s particularly effective for those with very complex medical conditions which might be life-limiting.
Bespoke was originally introduced back in 2013 as a stop-gap solution to assess conditions that didn’t fit neatly into some of the categories we had at that time. We used them to gather more information so we could build more relevant question sets.
Bespoke is an integrated option that insurers can choose to have on or off through Protectif depending on risk appetite.
