{"id":54899,"date":"2021-03-30T13:38:02","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T03:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=54899"},"modified":"2021-03-30T13:38:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T03:38:51","slug":"metlife-update-on-unfair-contract-terms-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2021\/03\/30\/metlife-update-on-unfair-contract-terms-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"MetLife Update on Unfair Contract Terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

MetLife<\/a> and other insurers have updated their Product Disclosure Statements in order to comply with the Unfair Contract Terms (UCT) legislation, which comes into effect from 5 April 2021.<\/p>\n

A statement from MetLife says this UCT update is not being treated as a rewritten policy or a new contract, and therefore does not in itself trigger new underwriting (see: Urgent Call for Insurers to Clarify Responses to Unfair Contract Terms Regime<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, changes to policies requested by an adviser on behalf of their client, such as moving a policy in or out of their superannuation, or changing from level to stepped premiums, does not trigger new underwriting,\u201d the statement adds. It continues:<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly changes that include additional or new benefits being added (outside of contractual obligations) would require underwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sally Loane.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile Financial Services Council<\/a> CEO Sally Loane<\/strong> says the council has been working with its members to better understand the full implications, including unintended ones, of the Unfair Contract Terms regime.<\/p>\n

…The FSC is in dialogue with the regulators to raise industry’s concerns<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe FSC shares industry concerns that as a result of these legislative changes, customers who took out a life insurance policy\u00a0before April 5\u00a0this year may be adversely affected in certain circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

It says it\u2019s in dialogue with the regulators to raise industry\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow individual life insurance companies respond must be a matter for those companies, as competition law precludes any collusion.<\/p>\n

…advisers can help their clients by being vigilant about correspondence from life insurance companies<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“However, advisers can help their clients by being vigilant about correspondence from life insurance companies, for example to ensure policies don\u2019t inadvertently lapse,” she says.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Integrity Life<\/a> says it will release enhancements to its existing retail product on 1 April 2021 which include “…ensuring clear and consistent language and updates to medical definitions to reflect contemporary assessment, diagnosis or treatment of specific medical conditions.”<\/p>\n

It adds that from 1 April 2021, all new retail customers and existing policyholders will receive the benefit of the updated terms and medical definitions.<\/p>\n

The insurer says it is in the position of not having any legacy products. “…Therefore, our policy administration processes are not impacted by these enhancements.”<\/p>\n

The new regime takes effect from 5 April 2021 and Riskinfo will shortly be reporting on other insurer updates following the implementation of the UCT regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MetLife and other insurers have updated their Product Disclosure Statements in order to comply with the Unfair Contract Terms (UCT) legislation, which comes into effect from 5 April 2021. A statement from MetLife says this UCT update is not being treated as a rewritten policy or a new contract, and therefore does not in itself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":54922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-company-news","category-compliance-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54899","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}