As such distributors that use the protection platform now have five income protection providers from which to select their clients’ income protection policies, giving automated and instant underwriting decisions for more than 90% of all protection cases.

Aegon’s life, critical illness and family income benefit products are already available on the Platform. The other income protection providers on the Platform include LV=, The Exeter, Royal London, and AIG.

Phil Nash, sales director at UnderwriteMe, said: “We want to help protect customers with income protection and it’s great to have Aegon’s product on our platform. We have five income protection providers on the platform, which is significant for advisers because income protection typically has more underwriting complexities than life and critical illness.

“We believe it is more compliant for an adviser to receive five fully underwritten premiums than call three or four insurers for indicative pre-underwriting terms, which is the typical number of insurers contacted.”

Stephen Crosbie, protection director at Aegon, added: “We want to help people achieve a lifetime of financial security by helping clients feel more in control of their future – even if the unexpected happens.

“Protecting income is the bedrock of financial planning, and having this protection in place can help improve your clients’ financial wellbeing. It’s therefore important to us that our income protection products are as accessible as possible to advisers and their clients. By having our income protection products available on the Protection Platform, we can help more advisers protect their clients.”

Alan Knowles, chairman of the Protection Distributors Group, concluded: “We would like to see more Income Protection sold, so the more options advisers have on the Protection Platform, the better. We would encourage all advisers to consider Income Protection as one of the most important Protection products for people of working age.”