{"id":73682,"date":"2024-10-10T13:55:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T03:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=73682"},"modified":"2024-10-29T15:30:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T05:30:16","slug":"zurich-product-update-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2024\/10\/10\/zurich-product-update-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Zurich Product Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zurich has announced a range of changes to its Wealth Protection product range taking effect from 1 October, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Chief amongst these changes is the introduction of the insurer&#8217;s new Continuous Care option within its TPD offer. This new option provides a lump sum payment if an individual becomes totally and permanently disabled and is unable to work (see our earlier report: <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2024\/10\/01\/zurich-launches-new-tpd-option\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zurich Launches New TPD Option<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Taken from a summary report for advisers produced by the insurer, other changes\/enhancements in its 1 October 2024 product update include:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Enhancement to Assessment Periods for Income Safeguard<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase in the \u2018own occupation\u2019 definition assessment period to 5 years, for policy holders with a 5 year benefit period.<\/li>\n<li>Only applies to policy holders who have a 30, 60 or 90 day waiting period, and 5 year benefit period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Applies to:<\/strong> Zurich Wealth Protection and Active \u2013 New &amp; existing policy holders of Zurich Income Safeguard (existing policy holders since 27 September 2021)<\/em><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong>Changes to Trauma Definitions<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There have been changes to several Trauma cover medical definitions. The changes aim to achieve better alignment of trauma definitions with client needs and medical practices. Conditions updated include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dementia including alzheimer\u2019s disease (diagnosis and with cognitive impairment) \u2013 previously dementia including alzheimer\u2019s disease (diagnosis)<\/li>\n<li>Aortic surgery<\/li>\n<li>Multiple sclerosis (recurrent episodes with impairment level) \u2013 previously multiple sclerosis (with impairment level)<\/li>\n<li>Loss of independence<\/li>\n<li>Melanoma (early stage)<\/li>\n<li>Diabetes (type 1) first diagnosed after age 30<\/li>\n<li>Muscular dystrophy (with symptoms) \u2013 previously muscular dystrophy (diagnosis)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Applies to<\/strong>: Zurich Wealth Protection and Active \u2013 New policy holders and some upgrades for existing policy holders<\/em><\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong>Increased benefits for rehabilitation and retraining<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Zurich has doubled the maximum amount they will pay for rehabilitation or retraining expenses payable to service providers, from12 times to 24 times the insured monthly benefit.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Applies to<\/strong>: Zurich Wealth Protection and Active \u2013 New &amp; existing policy holders of Zurich Income Safeguard (existing policy holders since 27 September 2021)<\/em><\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li><strong>Simplification of Extended Activities of Daily Living Definition<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The definition has been simplified to provide a clearer understanding of what meets the criteria for extended activities of daily living, by removing \u201cpartially unable to do\u201d in the scoring method for \u201cself-care, communication, physical activity, sensory function, hand functions, advanced functions\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Applies to:<\/strong> Zurich Wealth Protection and Active \u2013 new policy holders<\/em><\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li><strong>Changes to labels for \u2018Stepped\u2019 and \u2018Level\u2019 premium<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Changing the word \u2018Stepped\u2019 to \u2018variable age-stepped\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Changing the word \u2018Level\u2019 to \u2018variable\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is to ensure premium labels are more aligned with the nature of premiums.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Applies to:<\/strong> Zurich Wealth Protection and Active \u2013 New &amp; existing policy holders<\/em><\/p>\n<ol start=\"6\">\n<li><strong>Pricing changes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>New business pricing has been updated to reflect these changes. Most changes represent, on average, more value for money. Multi-policy benefits and Smart Value discounts continue to apply.<\/li>\n<li>The new rates will automatically apply when quoting new business through the Zurich Adviser Portal from 1 October 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Transition rules for these changes are as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New Wealth Protection and Active PDS terms applies to applications submitted from 1 October 2024. Any applications submitted prior to this will remain on the previous PDS terms, plus any upgrades which will be communicated to customers.<\/li>\n<li>New pricing applies to quotes from 1 October 2024, including any quotes that have not yet been submitted.<\/li>\n<li>Any quotes generated from the Zurich Adviser Portal prior to 1 October 2024, and saved will be honoured for a maximum of 60 days from the date of the quote.<\/li>\n<li>Existing customers and new business applications that have been submitted prior to 1 Oct 2024 will not be impacted by the pricing changes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Advisers and support team members can <a href=\"https:\/\/advisers.zurich.com.au\/resources\/change-navigator\/oct1-product-updates.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a> to access a concise summary of the 1 October 2024 changes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zurich.com.au\/content\/dam\/au-documents\/personal\/life-insurance\/zurich-wealth-protection-summary-of-changes.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a> to access a document released by Zurich outlining both current and past product updates dating as far back as 1999 in some cases, when Customer Information Brochures were still in use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zurich has announced a range of changes to its Wealth Protection product range taking effect from 1 October, 2024. Chief amongst these changes is the introduction of the insurer&#8217;s new Continuous Care option within its TPD offer. This new option provides a lump sum payment if an individual becomes totally and permanently disabled and is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3520,"featured_media":73686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-company-news","category-products"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73682","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\/3520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}