TAL to Offer Health Insurance Via Expanded Partnership

0

TAL will offer health insurance cover to the clients of financial advisers under an expanded partnership with health insurer nib.

TAL Chief Operating Officer, Justin Delaney

Under the partnership, which is currently being offered through a select group of advisers ahead of wider rollout, advisers will be able to refer their clients to a TAL health insurance team within nib which will review the latter’s health insurance needs.

Advice clients who have been referred to the team by their adviser will receive a five percent discount on health insurance cover, and those who purchase a combined hospital and extras before 31 January may also be eligible to receive $200 off their premiums.

TAL stated the health insurance offering was developed from feedback from its policy holders, financial advisers and an examination of key market insights and would continue to evolve based on ongoing input from customers and advisers.

TAL Chief Operating Officer, Justin Delaney, said the addition of the health insurance offering would provided improved customer value and assist advisers in deepening their relationships with their clients.

“Although we are known for life insurance at TAL, health has always been at the heart of everything we do. Over time, we believe that connecting health insurance and life insurance will enable us to better support Australians in preventative health and streamline our customers’ cover,” Delaney said.

“While advisers already play a vital role in protecting their customers’ financial outcomes, they are also well placed to start new conversations about reviewing their customers’ health insurance needs. Many of us often don’t review our cover regularly, and with this offering we have created a very simple way for advisers to help customers assess whether they have the right cover for their needs, while offering a discount when referred by their adviser,” he added.

The partnership is an expansion of an existing relationship between the two insurance firms where nib distributes TAL’s Term and Income Protection cover under authorisation from TAL’s direct insurance business.

nib Group Executive, Australian Residents Health Insurance, Rhod McKensey, said, “…we believe the opportunities created by the new alliance are a natural fit that allow TAL to leverage our expertise and skills”.

“We’re excited to continue to build our very strong health insurance whitelabelling capability through the addition of TAL to our existing group of highly valued partners who share our passion for great customer service,” he added.

In related news, TAL has launched its annual skin-check program, TAL SpotChecker, and will visit five well-known beaches in mainland capital cities across December and January.

The program, which is running for the third year, will offer free skin checks from specialist skin cancer doctors in pop-up facilities at the five beaches, as well as through an app – Firstcheck – that enables people to get a skin check through their smartphone.

TAL General Manager, Health Services, Dr Sally Phillips said research conducted for TAL found that while many people knew of the risks of skin cancer most had not had a skin check in the last year. Despite this, Phillips said TAL found that last year 39 percent of  people had never had a skin check but that figure had fallen to 29 percent this year, and the number of people who had a check in the last 12 months rose from 29 percent to 36 percent.

The program launched at Bondi Beach on the 1-2 December where almost 300 people had a skin check, and where 20 percent were referred for further checks.

The program will continue at  Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast (8-9 December 2018), Cottesloe Beach in Perth (12-13 January 2019), Harold and Cynthia Anderson Reserve in Adelaide (19-20 January 2019) and St Kilda Beach in Melbourne (26-27 January 2019).