Fighting for life

Price changes in the protection market have become more frequent in past months compared with previous years. Since January 2005 there have been 50 reviews of critical illness and life cover in the protection market, amounting to an average of more than one a week. Many of the alterations have come in direct response to weakening sales figures, which have forced providers to try to find new ways of attracting business. This has certainly given the appearance of a rate war. However, whether the frequency of the changes could be interpreted to indicate that there is an actual price war going...