Rural to withdraw standalone online small farm product

Agricultural underwriting agency Rural Insurance is withdrawing its standalone online cover for small farms, Insurance Times can reveal. 

The company will stop offering the standalone smallholders’ cover cover through its online portal from 1 November this year and stop accepting renewals from 1 December, according to a letter to brokers seen by Insurance Times.

For policies renewing on or after 1 December, Rural will offer new quotes for smallholders’ cover as part of its Farm Combined product if required.

Rural’s smallholders’ insurance is designed to cater for smallholdings and small working farms of less than 50 acres.

It launched the product in February 2015.

The MGA said: “We are committed to providing online servicing for a range of our products. However, in order to deliver this we need to make some significant developments to our digital platforms.

“Unfortunately we cannot continue to run the smallholders’ platform in parallel with these developments.”

Rural will accept new standalone smallholders’ business from brokers that have a live quote on the platform with a start date before 1 December. Brokers can use the online portal for new business up until 1 November or speak to an underwriter for anything between 1 November and 1 December.

For existing policies, Rural’s underwriters will continue to accept mid-term adjustments (MTAs) for the duration of the policy.

The MGA’s underwriting teams will continue to service policies renewing before 1 December.