The regulator has suggested it expects scaled advice to take over as the dominant form of advice in the industry in the next few years as the professionalisation of the sector continues. Addressing th
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The Government’s Protecting Your Super (PYS) legislation has certainly dragged on the major life insurers, but it has not been all bad balance sheet news, according to specialist life/risk research house, Dexx&r.
The latest Dexx&r analysis has found that while the PYS measures meant fewer members had default cover, re-pricing existing benefits had enabled life companies active in the group market to increase total premium received.
It noted that total in-force group risk premium increased by 2.1% from $6.1 billion at September, 2019, to $6.2 billion over the 12 months to September, 2020.
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Suncorp said it had raised the ASIC data with Asteron Life and had been “given comfort the statistics presented were not indicative of the experience of members of the Suncorp Master Trust (SMT)”.
What is more it said it did not believe the current TPD definition for SMT members has been a major concern to membership” with insurance-driven complaint volumes driven by the impacts of Protecting Your Super and Putting Members Interest First changes.
“Members are routinely referred to the disclosure material in fund welcome packs, insurance commencement letters, annual statements, and insurance-change communications. The SMT insurance policies and product disclosure materials include eligibility terms which outline members must be gainfully employed for a minimum of 15 hours or more each week in order to claim against the “occupational” TPD definition,” it said.
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The Government’s Protecting Your Super legislation appears to have come at a significant cost to some superannuation funds, with AustralianSuper estimating it at over $3.6 million.
AustralianSuper controversially introduced a levy to cover those costs and, answering questions on notice from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, the fund said those extra costs had totalled $3,674,932 on a cost-recovery basis alone.
What is more, the largest portion of those additional costs came in the form of administration.
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