The Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) Inquiry into the Life Insurance Industry will now release its final report in early December after it was granted a second extension to its reporting date by the Senate.
The PJC was initially due to hand down its report by 30 June 2017, but in March of this year the date was extended to 31 October. Last month a further extension was granted which moved the reporting date to 7 December 2017.
The Inquiry was set up in September 2016 following a request from Senator John Williams for its creation and a referral from the Senate to the PJC (see: Life Insurance Set For New Parliamentary Review).
To date the Inquiry, which has held six public hearings and received nearly 80 submissions, has focused on the need for further oversight of the life insurance industry, the merits of direct, retail and group life insurance, the claims practices of insurers, and their sales and marketing practices.
Changes to the Life Insurance Framework have not been covered under the terms of reference with Williams stating in March that those reforms had already been addressed by the Government (see: PJC Review Will Not Tackle LIF Reforms).
An analysis of the earlier hearings conducted by RiskInfo found that retail life insurance advice was of less concern to the Committee than issues around medical testing, mental health treatment, group life arrangements between insurers and superannuation funds and the underwriting process with direct insurance (see: Inside the Mind of the PJC).
