AIA Australia has won the business overhead category of this year’s Money Management/DEXX&R Adviser Choice Risk Awards.
The company’s business expenses insurance product is designed for small business owners and covers up to 100 per cent of their expenses, according to AIA Australia head of product management for individual life, Tim Tez.
“The feedback we’ve been getting from advisers is that we need to be able to deliver flexibility for them,” said Tez.
“One of our features we’ve introduced as a result of adviser feedback was ‘incorporated business expenses’. It is designed for business owners who need to ensure that the fixed expenses of their business will be paid even if they can’t work,” said Tez
The AIA product pays an agreed value amount, making it “very different” from some of the other contracts on the market that only pay based on actual expenses, he added.
Winning silver in the business overheads category is Clearview, with its LifeSolutions Business Expense cover product.
According to Clearview head of products and underwriting Clive Liventhal, the main standout of the product is its ongoing discount for customers who maintain their health.
“We reward customers who answer all the health questions and get accepted and take out our policy with a 10 per cent price discount,” said Levinthal.
This kind of discount would normally phase out over the duration of the policy, but Clearview allows customers to retain the discount if they make simple attestations every two years that “they’re looking after themselves”, said Levinthal.
“They don’t need to remain healthy … all we want to know is if they’ve been diagnosed with something – say it’s diabetes – that they’re following the advice of their doctor,” he said.
Clearview’s business expense product also has a group discount feature for people who buy multiple policies together.
“If multiple people buy this product together – for example business partners – you only pay one policy fee if you take this product out with another product, like life cover,” Levinthal said.
Rounding out the business expense category is BT Life with its business overheads product.
BT head of life insurance Phil Hay said one of the key features of the product is that there is no maximum sum insured.
“Where the need is demonstrated, we will not cap the maximum benefit available,” Hay said.
If business overheads are bundled with income protection, BT waives the policy fee “to ensure both personal and business income is protected,” said Hay.
“Having a three-tier definition ensures clients are able to return to work to check up on things and not worry about losing their benefits,” he added.
