Zurich has maintained its longstanding commitment to twice-yearly risk product enhancements with the announcement of its forthcoming March 1st update.
The update will reinforce Zurich’s growing platform presence with a number of improvements to its superannuation-based policies.
Headlining the enhancements is the confirmation of a first year 15 percent discount on premiums funded via rollover, further enhancing the cash flow benefits of this strategy.
Other super-based enhancements include:
1. The extension of Zurich’s unique accidental injury benefit to policies with superannuation ownership;
2. The addition of premium waiver options, which were previously only available in policies written outside of superannuation.
Zurich Life and Investments General Manager Retail, Mr. Philip Kewin, said the latest changes help make quality insurance protection more accessible to more Australians.
“The latest RBA rate cut highlights trepidation regarding the state of the Australian economy and there is no doubt that many households are tightening their belts,” said Mr. Kewin.
“Against this backdrop, the increasing popularity of risk written-on-platform is easy to understand. Our latest update reinforces the financial appeal of this strategy and extends the coverage of superannuation owned policies to bring them into line with non-super equivalents,’ he said.
“To the extent these enhancements help make it easier for customers to keep their valuable protection in place, they sit neatly alongside our existing suite of discounts, including our multi-life and multi-policy discounts,” said Mr. Kewin.
Other enhancements include a new home support option and more generous treatment of income benefit claimants not working in the period leading up to their temporary disablement.
Best-practice approach to automatic upgrades continues
The role of product upgrades for existing customers has been highlighted in recent industry reviews. Zurich continues to offer an automatic upgrade to existing Wealth Protection customers, meaning policies as far back as 1998 will automatically benefit from the enhanced definitions.
“Our automatic upgrade guarantee helps drive adviser efficiency, customer equity and sustainability within our rapidly growing retail portfolio.
“As one of the last remaining independent life insurers we have a longstanding commitment to increasing the accessibility of quality advice and solutions. Our upgrade guarantee is just another way we bring that commitment to life for the benefit of customers and advisers alike,” Mr. Kewin said.
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