Life insurer AIA Australia will reward healthy customers with discounts on shopping, entertainment and travel and slash premiums by up to 20 per cent, under a new scientific wellness program which is being piloted by a select group of financial planners.
The AIA Vitality program is a joint venture between AIA and South African insurer Discovery and it has already been successful rolled out across five continents: South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, China and Singapore.
The program is designed to stimulate people to buy an AIA Priority Protection Plan and take the first steps towards healthy living by rewarding policy holders with points which can be redeemed for a range of goods and services such as clothes, airfares and accommodation. Premium discounts of between 7.5 per cent and 20 per cent may also apply.
Members can qualify for an initial 7.5 per cent discount on their premiums on lump sum cover for life, trauma and TPD, and earn points two key ways. Firstly by knowing their health, which can include completing an online health survey, and getting regular dental and medical checks, and secondly, by improving their health, which can include going to the gym, walking and eating healthy food.
It is slated to be launched more broadly in Australia in early 2014 and will initially be sold through financial planners.
Life insurance comparison service xLife.com.au, which is a corporate authorised representative of ANZ-owned dealer Millennium 3, is currently piloting the program.
According to xLife chief executive Russell Cain, the program is the most revolutionary initiative in a decade and could cause “one of the biggest shake-ups to the life insurance industry”.
AIA Australia’s chief executive Peter Crewe (pictured) said the program provided financial advisers with a new way to connect and engage with consumers around the need for, and benefits of, life insurance, given Australia’s well-documented underinsurance problem.
AIA research shows that in countries where Vitality is available, there has been a noticeable improvement in members’ health leading to lower premiums and lower hospital admission rates.
“We need to find new ways to connect and engage with Australians about the need for life insurance,” Crewe said.
“By shifting the conversation to that of preventative health and wellness, we believe that we can improve engagement with our products as well as tackle the chronic illness epidemic facing Australia at the same time.”
