Integrity Group buys QBE Life for $21.7m
Australian life insurance group, Integrity Group has announced the acquisition of QBE Life from QBE Insurance Group for $21.7 million, with plans to sell life insurance through financial advisers.
Following the transaction, the firm will be renamed Integrity Life and the deal includes an arrangement to underwrite the life insurance component of QBE’s consumer credit insurance suite sold through financial institutions, the company said.
Also, the move would enable Integrity to join the life insurance industry in Australia by using QBE Life as a launching pad to provide products to the Australian market based on the latest technology.
Chris Powell, Integrity Group’s managing director and former Zurich Australia’s chief financial officer as well as Centric Wealth’s COO, said: “Life insurers in Australia are hamstrung by their legacy technology, whereas we have no legacy systems.”
Additionally, Integrity Life said it would launch group insurance product in early 2018 and retail life products in mid-2018 while new technologies would be expected to help advisers and their clients thanks to faster approval of applications and claims.
“Advisers play a critical role in helping both consumers and corporates choose the right policy for their needs. Yet in many ways the industry undervalues the contribution they make,” Powell said.
“We want advisers to feel we listen to their needs and their clients’ and we will act to meet those needs.
“We have the opportunity to build our products from the ground up using class leading technologies.”
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