{"id":27533,"date":"2014-09-30T10:15:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T00:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=27533"},"modified":"2025-09-02T11:34:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:34:37","slug":"group-price-rises-biggest-industry-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2014\/09\/30\/group-price-rises-biggest-industry-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"Group Price Rises Biggest Industry Concern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Group insurance premiums are likely to continue to rise as insurers struggle with increasing claims, an industry survey has predicted.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"AIA<\/a>
AIA Australia CEO, Damien Mu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Conducted by AIA Australia at its recent Group Insurance Summit, the survey asked attendees to identify the most pressing issue for insurers and insurance professionals. An overwhelming 81% of respondents said balancing rising claims with sustainable premiums for members would be the greatest challenge for insurers in the coming year.<\/p>\n

According to Rice Warner, super fund insurance premiums increased by an average of 14% between November 2013 and June 2014. Further, a comparison of average premiums for death and TPD cover for super funds versus retail products showed the margin between group and retail has narrowed substantially (see: Group and Retail Prices Converge<\/a>).<\/p>\n

However, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has warned that continually increasing premiums in the group market is unsustainable, and could lead to tension between funds and their insurers. In its 2013 Insights report<\/a>, APRA observed that while insurers had been able to offer super fund trustees changing benefit designs and improved customer service to offset concerns from members about increased rates, this strategy was likely to be \u2018nearing exhaustion\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018It now seems that trustees are redirecting their attention to the impact that the cost of insurance premiums are having on members\u2019 retirement benefits, particularly as prices increase,\u2019 the report stated.<\/p>\n

AIA Australia CEO, Damien Mu<\/strong>, said the survey findings indicated insurers needed to think outside the box when it came to managing claims, rather than simply relying on price rises.<\/p>\n

We need to think more broadly about the ways we manage these claims<\/h6>\n

\u201cAs insurers we have a role to play by not simply addressing the issue of claims sustainability through continual premium increases. We need to think more broadly about the ways we manage these claims, so implementing rehabilitation programs backed by comprehensive support, training and education for members and employers needs to be a key capability for group insurers,\u201d Mr Mu said.<\/p>\n

47% of respondents agreed with Mr Mu\u2019s position, saying that educating members on life insurance products and the health benefits of returning to work was the most important thing the industry could do to address sustainability issues. A further 26% said insurers could best demonstrate their value to super funds by educating members about the claims process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s vital that the industry continues to address these issues as we move forward to a more sustainable future\u201d, said Mr Mu. \u201cLife insurers and super funds must continue working together to educate and engage employers and members to ensure group insurance policies remain valuable to Australian\u2019s and they understand what they are getting and how to engage with their insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Group insurance premiums are likely to continue to rise as insurers struggle with increasing claims, an industry survey has predicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8294,48,241,5622],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-claims","category-company-news","category-conferences-and-events","category-superannuation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27533","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}