Aviva Riskfirst Enhancement & Addressing Dishonour Fees

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    MLC’s latest Aviva Weekly bulletin to advisers has outlined an enhancement to the insurer’s Riskfirst online insurance platform.

    Designed to speed up the underwriting process, Aviva has redesigned the occupation section in its Riskfirst platform with the intention of offering ‘… a more streamlined experience by eliminating the need to answer questions more than once,’ as well as minimising the need for any referrals.

    According to Aviva, its redesigned occupation calculator will now be able to:

    • Add up duties that can be undertaken in occupations including administration, light manual, heavy manual and occupations involving heights
    • Determine the level of risk insurance based on the occupation rating
    • Streamline processes to obtain personal information and then submit the case

    Aviva says this new enhancement to Riskfirst promotes quicker underwriting responses and improves the declaration of the Personal Statement.

    Dishonour Fees

    In other Aviva news, the insurer has recently raised the issue of the potentially damaging impact of dishonour fees on client accounts.

    In addressing the issue of dishonour fees, MLC General Manager – Retail Insurance Aoperations, Frank Lombardo, says the scale of this problem is much bigger than even Aviva had at first anticipated.

    Mr Lombardo reports that over $10 million a year and 23,300 transactions of premiums have been dishonoured for direct debits by Aviva policy holders.

    Aviva says 80% of its life insurance policies are paid via direct debit from a bank account or credit card, and based on industry averages, Aviva policy holders are collectively paying $814,000 per year in dishonour fees to their financial institution.

    Aviva argues that growing household debt is reducing disposable income and that the major reason for lapsed insurance policies is lack of affordability.

    To address this issue, Aviva recommends advisers work closely with their clients to help them manage their ongoing direct debit account commitments and to also encourage client to consider the option of paying premiums by credit card.

    While neither of these systems is perfect, Aviva suggests the automatic nature of the payments helps to reduce the chances of missing premium payments and also reduces administrative hassles associated with chasing missed premiums.