Financial advisers will be able to offer clients a range of AIA's priority protection products with payment through their superannuation following a range of upgrades announced by AIA.
Clients will be able to purchase income protection insurance by paying for the appropriate level of cover wholly through their superannuation under a move AIA said demonstrated its commitment to partnering advisers and would enable advisers to offer clients more flexibility in purchasing insurance.
Clients who may particularly benefit included the self employed, who may struggle with no employer superannuation support but can claim personal contributions to super as a tax deduction, said AIA's head of product and marketing Tim Tez.
"A recent AIA Australia survey of advisers across the country showed that the self-employed are viewed as one of the biggest growth opportunities for advisers this year," he said.
The Super IP option enables advisers to address clients' concerns about cash flow and taxation, he said.
AIA also announced upgrades to some crisis recovery benefit definitions, including an improvement to the cancer definition in response to earlier detection techniques. An amendment to the definition of heart attack removes any doubt of payment, in the event of a heart attack, regardless of its severity, AIA stated.
AIA also introduced terminal illness, intensive care and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest benefits under the income protection range, and extended the elective or cosmetic surgery benefit to all income protection policies.
The upgrades would not be accompanied by an increase in premiums, AIA stated.
