Fruitless results?

Some commentators have achieved a lot of press from calling for the publication of income protection (IP) claims statistics as well as critical illness (CI) information. Sesame obtained statistics from most of the market as part of its recent IP review, but the figures - while interesting - have to be seen as a blunt instrument if used as a means to identify good claims-payers. Is Lincoln, with a 2% declinature rate in 2007, really nearly eight times as unlikely to decline a claim as Aegon Scottish Equitable which declined 15%? Surely not. The following points, some of which also apply to...