{"id":110,"date":"2008-11-17T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2008-11-17T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=110"},"modified":"2008-11-18T13:23:48","modified_gmt":"2008-11-18T03:23:48","slug":"aig-life-product-launch-and-innovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2008\/11\/17\/aig-life-product-launch-and-innovations\/","title":{"rendered":"AIG Life Product Innovations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AIG Life\u00a0continues its national roadshow presentations this week for its Priority Protection update, effective from 1 December 2008.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->While there are a number of key features enhancements, the two major highlights of this launch are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Introduction of the Forward Underwriting Benefit<\/li>\n<li>Introduction of the Optimum Premium Option<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Forward Underwriting Benefit<\/span><\/p>\n<p>First reported by riskinfo\u00a0in late October 2008, the concept behind the Forward Underwriting Benefit\u00a0is to enable\u00a0clients to &#8216;lock in&#8217; their future insurance needs with their present health status today.\u00a0 Under this extra cost option, clients are able to take out only the cover they require today, but lock in future lump sum cover increases (up to $10 million) based on their current health.<\/p>\n<p>Clients can tailor their\u00a0cover as required in future.\u00a0 For example, if a client only takes out Life\u00a0cover initially, the Forward Underwriting Benefit will also allow them to take out Trauma and\/or TPD cover at a future date.<\/p>\n<p>Trigger events will allow new or increased cover to be taken, without medical underwriting.\u00a0 But irrespective of whether\u00a0a trigger event occurs, the client may still increase cover (by up to 25% of the Forward Underwriting Benefit) every three years.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Optimum Premium<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Introduced by AIG Life as a new premium payment concept, Optimum Premium allows a client to commence on a stepped premium basis and then convert to a level premium structure at a future date.\u00a0 This is achieved by marginally loading AIG Life&#8217;s\u00a0standard stepped and level premium rates.<\/p>\n<p>Available for Death, TPD, Crisis and Income Protection cover, and sitting between stepped and level premium, this option will appeal to clients who may favour a level premium concept but are not able to afford the higher cost at commencement when compared with the cost of the same cover under a stepped premium scenario.<\/p>\n<p>Under Optimum Premium, a\u00a0typical 45 year-old client may\u00a0pay around 45% less to age 65 than they would if they maintained stepped premium payments.<\/p>\n<p>AIG Life&#8217;s Head of Adviser Services, <strong>David Mounsey<\/strong>, outlines the three key benefits of Optimum Premium for advisers and clients:<\/p>\n<p><em>Advisers<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Client retention<\/li>\n<li>Enhancing adviser cashflow (by up to 35%)<\/li>\n<li>More opportunities to engage prospective clients and re-engage with existing clients<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Clients<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Affordability<\/li>\n<li>Retention of cover, particularly at times when cover is needed the most<\/li>\n<li>Ability to run Optimum Premium either inside or outside the Superannuation environment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Advisers wanting to access webcasts outlining further details of these two initiatives, along with AIG Life&#8217;s SuperPlus offer (where all cover can be placed under a single policy with a single policy fee) and Australia&#8217;s first electronic Product Disclosure Statement for risk products, can take the following link: <a href=\"http:\/\/aiginnovations.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\">AIG Innovations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Other Priority Protection Enhancements<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Other key enhancements applying from 1 December 2008 include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New benefit &#8211; Partial Permanent Disablement &#8211; up to $250,000 benefit for permanent loss of use of one arm or one leg or sight in one eye<\/li>\n<li>New benefit &#8211; Disability Income &#8211; clients can now be assessed for disability against a duties-based as well as a time-based definition at claim time (AAA, AA and A category occupations, PLUS option only)<\/li>\n<li>Introduction of Accidental Life Cover to $1 million &#8211; no underwriting &#8211;\u00a0all clients considered as non-smokers for premium purposes<\/li>\n<li>Cap on Terminal Illness Benefits removed<\/li>\n<li>TPD Own Occupation clients will only be considered under an Any Occupation definition if they have been unemployed for longer than 12 months<\/li>\n<li>TPD definition enhanced to pay a full benefit if client is able to return to work but is earning less than 25% of income earned prior to disablement (applies to\u00a0Any\u00a0Occupation definition)<\/li>\n<li>Enhancements to various Crisis event benefits, including Coronary Artery Angioplasty, Heart Attack, Heart Valve Surgery<\/li>\n<li>Enhanced Female Crisis Assistance Benefit &#8211; AIG Life advises &#8220;All female cancers are now covered&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Partial Disability benefits now available from Day One, ie requirement for seven consecutive days of Total Disablement removed (AAA, AA and A occupation categories)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Premium Rates<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AIG Life advises there have been both increases and reductions in rates, but that its main focus is to be as competitive as possible within its target\u00a0age range of 35 &#8211; 60<\/li>\n<li>Income Protection PLUS option rates have increased by 1% due to the dual definitions now available under the Total Disability definition<\/li>\n<li>One Policy fee only is to be charged per life insured for policies issued after 1 December 2008<\/li>\n<li>AIG Life also advises\u00a0a 30% discount now applies to lump sum cases where the sum insured is in excess of $1 million<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Summary<\/span><\/p>\n<p>At the launch attended by riskinfo, Managing Director AIG Life, <strong>Stuart Harrison<\/strong>, focussed on the issue of &#8216;Simplicity&#8217; as a way of characterising the nature of this update as well as on further initiatives planned by AIG Life for 2009, such as Straight Through Processing and offline electronic applications and underwriting.\u00a0 Within this context, Mr Harrison spoke of\u00a0attempting to position his company as the &#8216;iPod of life insurance&#8217; in Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AIG Life\u00a0continues its national roadshow presentations this week for its Priority Protection update, effective from 1 December 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-products","category-underwriting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}