{"id":67480,"date":"2023-09-05T13:35:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T03:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=67480"},"modified":"2025-03-14T12:02:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T01:02:22","slug":"integrity-life-closing-to-new-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2023\/09\/05\/integrity-life-closing-to-new-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrity Life Closing to New Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

The sad news that Integrity Life is closing its retail and corporate books to new business has generated a huge amount of interest this week…<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Integrity Life has announced it is ceasing writing new business in the Retail Advised and Corporate Group channels.<\/p>\n

A statement from the company says Integrity Group Holdings has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Integrity Life Australia (together Integrity Group) would no longer be writing new life insurance policies in the Retail Advised and Corporate Group Insurance channels.<\/p>\n

The Chairman of Integrity Group, Eric Dodd<\/strong> said that this “…has been a very difficult decision. The Board and the Integrity Leadership Team have been actively reviewing the strategic direction of Integrity Group and have considered and progressed a range of options.<\/p>\n

“Protection of policyholders is critical and as such the Board has taken the difficult decision to close to new business in the Retail Advised and Corporate Group channels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sean McCormack …It is vitally important that we remain true to what\u2019s most important, being able to protect and support our policyholders and their loved ones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Sean McCormack<\/strong> said: \u201cI\u2019m incredibly sad for the entire Integrity team and our many partners who have supported us, especially in recent years.<\/p>\n

“This is not the news we\u2019d hoped to share however the significant challenges of the Australian life market coupled with the realities of growing a business from the ground up mean that it is necessary. It is vitally important that we remain true to what\u2019s most important, being able to protect and support our policyholders and their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCormack continued: \u201cWith the support and confidence of our partners, and despite the challenges, we have achieved very strong growth since March 2021 \u2013 for this we\u2019re very grateful.”<\/p>\n

…Unfortunately, the Retail Advised channel has seen a substantial reduction in the number of Financial Advisers providing risk advice over the last five years…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the Retail Advised channel has seen a substantial reduction in the number of Financial Advisers providing risk advice over the last five years. The number of lives insured across all channels has substantially reduced and the market decline means that scale is critical. Achieving scale requires significant ongoing investment, and we have reached a point where it is not in either the policyholder or shareholder interests to continue to write new Retail Advised policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that given the challenges with Retail Advised \u201c\u2026we have also taken the decision to cease quoting for new Corporate Group Insurance business, to maintain our capital for the benefit and protection of existing policyholders. Our commitment to claims is unchanged. We remain focused on supporting our existing policyholders and we are committed to looking after them in their time of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company says that for the Retail Advised channel this change will take effect from 29 September 2023. For the Corporate Group Insurance channel this change takes effect immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther Integrity partnerships remain open to new business at this time. Integrity Group confirmed that for all Retail Advised and Corporate Group policyholders there will be no change to their existing insurance policy terms or conditions in accordance with the relevant Product Disclosure Documents (PDS) and Policy Documents. Claims processes will remain unchanged, and Integrity will continue to meet Life Insurance Code of Practice obligations.<\/p>\n

Supporting facts<\/strong><\/p>\n

The statement also included a supporting facts section:<\/p>\n

Retail Advised channel challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Rainmaker Information, Australian financial adviser numbers, Sep 22 showed a significant decline in overall adviser numbers (26,500 (2019) to 16,671 (2022)) as a result of the Life Insurance Framework, increased education requirements and higher standards of conduct.<\/li>\n
  • Adviser Ratings in its 2023 Life Insurance Study found that as at 1 January 2023 there were 15,833 advisers in the industry. Of those, 150 only provided advice on life insurance and 949 were largely specialised in providing life insurance advice (together 1,099 or 7% of total advisers), and a further 2,372 (15%) provided some advice on life insurance.<\/li>\n
  • The reduction in adviser numbers has led to a reduction in the contestable new business pool from $532m (rolling 12 months to Dec 18) to $267m (rolling 12 months to Mar 23), per NMG Risk Distribution Monitor reports.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Change in lives insured Jun 18 \u2013 June 22:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Retail Advised lives insured:\n
        \n
      • Jun 2018 5.0m<\/li>\n
      • Jun 2022 4.1m Source: APRA Claims and Disputes statistics<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
      • Change in Retail Advised lives insured by product Jun 18 \u2013 Dec 22:\n
          \n
        • Death: \u201324.1%<\/li>\n
        • TPD: \u201316.7%<\/li>\n
        • IP: \u201315.5% Source: APRA Claims and Disputes statistics<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Integrity Group recent growth:<\/strong><\/p>\n

            \n
          • Mar 2021 Premium In Force $22.2m, ~59,000 lives insured<\/li>\n
          • June 2023 Premium In Force $140.3m, ~185,000 lives insured<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              The sad news that Integrity Life is closing its retail and corporate books to new business has generated a huge amount of interest this week… Integrity Life has announced it is ceasing writing new business in the Retail Advised and Corporate Group channels. A statement from the company says Integrity Group Holdings has announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":67534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,8291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-company-news","category-story-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67480","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=67480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}