With less than 60 shopping days until Christmas your thoughts might be turning to mince pies, pressies and parties. However with the European Gender Directive coming into force on 21st December 2012 there could be a last minute rush for his and hers products – and I don’t mean aftershave and sexy undies – but rather insurance (which never smells nice or gets the heart racing).

The EU Gender directive states  that “gender should not be used as a risk factor in the underwriting process for all insurance policies”.  The deadline for this is 21st December 2012 – G Day.  This  means, to those not au fais with EU speak, that men and women can’t have different priced insurance based on their gender. There’s quite a number of products that are are caught by this new ruling…

Car insurance, traditionally cheaper for women, will be unisex priced. The insurance providers will have three options: decrease premiums for men, increase premiums for women or a mixture of both.  Now I’m not renowned for my cynicism but even I can evisage a world where the insurance companies are rubbing their hands with glee. Increased premiums for the same risk. What’s not to like (for them at least)?

If you’re a woman and your car insurance is due for renewal before 21st December 2012 you still might be able to  get a lower rate but check that the provider hasn’t implemented unisex pricing early. Even if your renewal is after 21st December 2012 you should check. But make sure you know if there are penalties for cancelling your existing cover.

This opportunity is for one year only – all renewals after 21st December 2012 will be priced on a unisex basis. Tough luck if you’re a 17 year female driver having to pay the same car insurance as a boy racer. I can see a few withdrawals being made from the Bank of Dad for that one. Just before the 3 or 4 annual withdrawals of £9,000 each for university tuition fees – but that’s another story.

For life insurance and annuities taking advantage is even more important. These are typically one off contracts. Once the rate is set, it’s set. Life insurance premiums will increase for women (in line with men who are expected to die sooner). Annuity payments will penalise men. Traditionally they received higher annuity rates as they have a lower life expectancy. Not any more.

There’s not long to go either and some companies are switching to unisex pricing sooner rather than later. PruProtect will switch to gender-neutral pricing on 21 December for all products except its whole-of-life plan, which will switch on 3 November. Skandia will have the new gender neutral rates to quote from the 5th November onwards and all gender specific applications must be received by 3rd December. Whereas Friends Life said the company will guarantee gender-specific pricing for policies submitted before 14 December and on risk by 20 December.

There is one bit of good news to come out of the EU Gender Directive for a small section of the population – those women in income drawdown. For them their drawdown rates will be calculated using the men’s GAD rates which are higher than the women’s.

Contain yourselves ladies, it’s not time to reach for the plastic and go shoe shopping just yet (some gender sterotyping is still allowed by the EU!). The new rates will only come into force at the next triennial review (for those under 75). For the ladies over 75 the new rates will come in to force at the first annual review after G-Day.

It seems that Christmas really will come early this year for the insurance companies – 4 days early. I’m now re-drafting my Christmas list to Santa (he never gets me the weekend  lie in I’ve been asking for since the children were born anyway). No pants, socks and hankies for me. To paraphrase the inimitable Mariah Carey: “All I want for Christmas are some insurance company shares!”