Partners Life has launched two new products along with enhancements to a range of existing policies. The new products are Moderate Trauma Cover, and Income and Expenses Cover.
Moderate Trauma Cover is a lump-sum product designed to give clients cover against trauma conditions of a moderate severity, rather than providing coverage for conditions which do not cause significant financial consequences.
“Some, but not all, trauma condition definitions require a greater degree of severity under Moderate Trauma Cover than they do under Partners Life’s Trauma Cover,” says the firm.
“Moderate Trauma Cover has more generous trauma condition definitions than Severe Trauma Cover and consequently costs more than Severe Trauma Cover.
“Moderate Trauma Cover is designed to bridge the gap between Trauma Cover and Severe Trauma Cover.”
Partners Life says one of the difficulties with determining how much trauma cover a client needs is the wide range of financial consequences – from none at all to millions of dollars.
…one of the difficulties with determining how much trauma cover a client needs is the wide range of financial consequences…
“Breaking trauma risk into separate risks, those with (relatively) ‘minor’, ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’ financial consequences, helps clients more easily quantify the risk and makes applying a suitable insurance solution much easier,” says the firm. “What is ‘minor’, ‘moderate’, or ‘severe’ depends on each client and their circumstances.”
Income and Expenses Cover is described by Partners Life as a monthly disability product designed to give clients cover against the loss of income caused by total or partial inability to work, due to sickness or accident (total and partial disability), “…at an affordable and more sustainable price”.
“Income and Expenses Cover costs less than all Partners Life Income Cover options and is expected to produce more certain future price stability,” says the firm.
The firm’s Chief marketing Officer Kris Ballantyne says both new products are designed to be more price-stable.
“The intention is to retain our competitive positioning as a premiere product manufacturer, and to bring some positive news to the market after a couple of years of disruption from DI limitations, regulatory change and Covid,” he says.
Policy Enhancements
The firm’s product changes and benefit improvements apply to:
- Life Cover
- Life Income Cover
- Terminal Illness Cover
- Total and Permanent Disability Cover
- Severe Trauma Cover
- Trauma Cover
Ballantyne says many of the changes have been made in response to real client scenarios, “while others are to match good innovations we have seen within the market”.
Policy improvements include the timeframe under its Counselling benefit, which has been raised from three to 12 months, allowing clients more time, combined with the added flexibility, to seek appropriate counselling after a benefit is paid.
The timeframe under the Financial and Legal Advice benefit has also been extended from three to 12 months and its value increased from $2,500 to $3,000.
Partners Life is also increasing the overall limit applied to the Special Events Increase benefit from 75% of the aggregated sum insured to 100%.
“We have added ‘an increase in net business profit’ to the current list of life events, allowing self-employed clients a further opportunity to increase their cover without further assessment of health, occupation, or pastimes,” says the firm in a statement.
For clients with a Partners Life Total Permanent Disablement (TPD) policy there is no wait period. In addition, the insurer has added severe rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus (autoimmune disease) with nephritis (inflammation of the kidney) to the current list of ‘no wait’ conditions.
The firm also says the usual 90-day disability requirement does not apply, and clients do not need to wait 90 days to be paid a benefit if they are diagnosed with a condition listed under the TPD ‘no wait benefit’.
Partners Life will also waive the 90 days requirement if, in its opinion, a client has met all requirements for a TPD claim and is likely to survive beyond 90 days after their incapacity.
With regard Alzheimer’s disease, Partners Life’s definition has been simplified so it pays a full benefit on the diagnosis of the disease by an appropriate specialist.
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