Partners Life Discontinues Fastapp

1

Partners Life has announced that it has decided to discontinue Fastapp for new policies effective from 13 May 2019.

The insurer launched Fastapp in March 2017 as an alternative pathway for customers who wished to obtain Partners Life’s products but didn’t have the time to complete the full underwriting process.

“The target market for Fastapp was healthy clients who simply didn’t have enough time to go through the usual application process, or who got stuck in the pipeline with outstanding requirements,” Partners Life stated in an adviser update.

It said the goal was to get more New Zealanders insured and help reduce not taken up (NTU) rates.

The insurer explained the decision to discontinue Fastapp followed an analysis of over two years’ worth of higher quality data which found some claims had been declined under certain wording within Fastapp policies.

“Analysis of the claims outcomes under Fastapp policies has shown two things – that the Predictable Claims exclusion wording has worked very well to emulate underwriting, but the ‘Uninsurable Health’ exclusion is somewhat more complex,” the insurer stated.

“Some clients have had claims declined under this wording where either they were always medically uninsurable (and would never have been insurable) due to severe pre-existing conditions, or where the ‘combination risk’ presented was above the prescribed maximum permissable.”

It continued: “This is not a good outcome, as these individuals ended up paying for cover they never should have had, and would never have had a claim paid under. In these cases, we have tried to remediate each client individually however this has shown us that Fastapp has been used in cases where it was never intended to be used.”

Partners Life stated that it has communicated directly with advisers who have in-force Fastapp business on their books and detailed further information about plans going forward for Fastapp clients.

The insurer confirmed that policies issued under the Fastapp process will continue to receive product enhancements and full support from Partners Life for as long as they stay in-force and that it is making a major enhancement to the Fastapp wordings for those clients.