{"id":35952,"date":"2017-02-07T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T02:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=35952"},"modified":"2025-09-02T11:34:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:34:01","slug":"anz-calls-for-claims-assistance-but-praises-role-of-advisers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2017\/02\/07\/anz-calls-for-claims-assistance-but-praises-role-of-advisers\/","title":{"rendered":"ANZ Calls for Claims Assistance But Praises Role of Advisers"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANZ has added its voice to calls for a consumer orientated claims assistance service while also highlighting that consumers are less likely to make a complaint when a financial adviser is involved in the claims process.<\/p>\n

ANZ made the latter statement as part of its submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee Inquiry into Life Insurance in which it stated there was an opportunity for the life insurance and superannuation sectors to have a greater role in assisting consumers during the claims process.<\/p>\n

Repeating a call made by AIA Australia in its submission (see: AIA Australia Calls for Claims Service to Assist Consumers<\/a>), ANZ said an independent, industry funded service could assist claimants, who may or may not have an adviser, through the entire claims process.<\/p>\n

In making the call, ANZ emphasised the role of advisers and stated that even if a claims assistance service was in place \u201c\u2026customers who have retail insurance would be encouraged to continue to engage the services of their adviser when making a claim\u201d.<\/p>\n

“We experience significantly less complaints where a financial adviser is involved in the claims process”<\/h6>\n

The bank also wrote in its submission that an \u201c\u2026overwhelming majority of claimants with retail life insurance are supported by a financial adviser. We experience significantly less complaints where a financial adviser is involved in the claims process\u201d.<\/p>\n

While ANZ did highlight some of the problems associated with the sale of retail advised insurance, such as the quality of advice given and churning, it also stated that when retail insurance was sold through an adviser \u201c\u2026customers receive the benefit of professional financial advice to help inform their choices\u201d.<\/p>\n

In suggesting a claims assistance service ANZ also suggested that costs could be reduced by removing the presence of legal advice at time of lodging a claim and providing consumers with options if the event there was a dispute around a claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make the process as low cost as possible to consumers, we suggest that it would be unnecessary for claimants to retain legal advisers at the initial stage of making a claim,\u201d ANZ stated<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce an assessment is made, claimants should of course be free to take whatever steps are necessary should a claim be refused. Claimants are advised of internal and external dispute processes that are available at no cost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANZ has added its voice to calls for a consumer orientated claims assistance service while also highlighting that consumers are less likely to make a complaint when a financial adviser is involved in the claims process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8294,4],"tags":[4247],"class_list":["post-35952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-claims","category-products","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952","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=35952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}