Asteron Life is offering a premium holiday of up to six months, along with premium and cover suspension benefits of up to 12 months to business insurance policies with immediate effect.
Robyn Bartlett, Product Manager at the firm, says the impact of the government’s alert level lockdowns means many business owners have had to make savings to stay afloat.
“When times are tough, life insurance premiums are often an expense SMEs will try to reduce or cut completely, often to the detriment of their long-term financial resilience,” she says.
The premium holiday benefit has been added to Asteron Life’s Business Insurance and SmartBusiness lump sum covers, while premium and cover suspension benefits have been added to Business Insurance, Key Person and Business Expenses disability covers. They are already available on the majority of Asteron Life’s personal products.
…life insurance premiums are often an expense SMEs will try to reduce or cut completely…
For premium holidays on lump sum covers, cover will remain claimable while the premiums are waived, while on disability covers, cover will be put on hold while premiums are being waived.
Bartlett says: “Throughout 2020, we offered comprehensive support packages to customers affected by Covid-19, including providing nearly $4 million in premium relief and waivers.
“We temporarily extended premium relief to approximately 50,000 business and personal customers who didn’t have inbuilt benefits in their policies. The changes we have announced today make these permanent policy benefits for our business products, which means that eligible business customers can apply to access premium waivers or holidays for Covid related hardship or anything else that creates temporary financial difficulties in the future.”