{"id":33517,"date":"2016-06-14T20:26:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T09:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=33517"},"modified":"2025-09-02T11:34:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:34:33","slug":"reports-of-tdp-definition-flaws-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2016\/06\/14\/reports-of-tdp-definition-flaws-rejected\/","title":{"rendered":"Reports of TPD Definition Flaws Rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Media reports downplaying\u00a0the value of Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) insurance have been rejected by two life insurance experts as confusing for consumers and \u2018trying to make something out of nothing\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Risk Store, Founder, Sue Laing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The comments come from The Risk Store<\/a>, Founder, Sue Laing<\/strong> and Managing Director, Pete Wincott<\/strong>, who wrote to subscribers providing a detailed response to a recent article in a major newspaper, which stated that \u2018any occupation\u2019 policies offered little or no protection to those who held these policies through a superannuation fund.<\/p>\n

This purported lack of protection was attributed to the \u2018any occupation\u2019 definitions compared with \u2018own occupation\u2019, the article stated, with the former policies only paying out when a person was totally and permanently disabled or dead.<\/p>\n

In the note to subscribers to The Risk Store, Laing and Wincott said the article was inaccurate and portrayed the \u2018any occupation\u2019 definition within group TPD policies as a flaw or a failure when it was actually part of the structure of group life policies and reflects a legislated wording.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo-one has ever said any different about group TPD cover. It\u2019s always been the \u2018any\u2019 occupation definition. This isn\u2019t news\u2026everyone with group TPD will only get paid out on total and permanent disablement. It\u2019s a total and permanent disablement benefit,\u201d the note stated.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Any occupation\u2019 TPD is not a failing or a failure by any party.”<\/h6>\n

\u201c\u2018Any occupation\u2019 TPD is not a failing or a failure by any party. The \u2018own occupation\u2019 definitions have only ever been available in retail or platform super products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laing and Wincott also rejected the idea that group TPD policies were failing claimants, estimating that 75% to 80% of group TPD claims are paid \u201cwith the rest either not eligible for cover or not meeting the required level of total and permanent disablement for \u2018any\u2019 occupation\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the note to subscribers, Laing and Wincott said statistics collected by The Risk Store showed these payments in 2015 equated to $1.575 billion off the back of the \u2018any occupation\u2019, and more than $6.25 billion was paid over the past 10 years, the majority of this under \u2018any\u2019 occupation.<\/p>\n

They also rejected claims within the article that super fund trustees were unaware of the any\/own occupation issue stating that the Federal Government mandates the policy definitions in group life and trustees are required to know these details, which are also supplied to members with their fund statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe terms and conditions in group policies \u2013 which have no means of controlling levels of loss without these terms \u2013 are not new and are not creeping in anywhere. They are the same sort of terms and conditions as in car insurance, house insurance and dozens of other consumer financial products that need to be made available affordably to the population,\u201d the note stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe terms and conditions in group policies…are not new and are not creeping in anywhere.”<\/h6>\n

Wincott said The Risk Store penned its response as a tool for its subscribers to address concerns raised by clients but also out of a wider concern for the lack of details in the article and the potential impact this has on consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cReferences were made to supposed deficiencies in the TPD cover in life insurance in super as if something was missing or as if there were flaws and we felt it was trying to make something out of nothing,\u201d Wincott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were concerned about a story speaking about negative issues that are not there and consumers don\u2019t know the details and see media statements and believe them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end result is more consumers move away from insurance and this reinforces the cynicism towards financial services and advice,\u201d Wincott added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media reports downplaying\u00a0the value of Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) insurance have been rejected by two life insurance experts as confusing for consumers and \u2018trying to make something out of nothing\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8294,4,5622],"tags":[4247],"class_list":["post-33517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-claims","category-products","category-superannuation","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33517","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=33517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}