The triumph of Asteron’s Income Protector in the disability category of this year’s awards is just rewards for a product that has been “knocking on the door for an industry award for years”.
That’s the opinion of product manager Gerard Kerr, who last year received “yet another” runner-up award in the category for the product on behalf of Asteron.
Kerr said the award winning qualities of Income Protector lie in the simplicity and flexibility of its definitions, as well as in the intrinsic quality of the product features themselves.
“Planners appreciate that they can readily understand its overall simplicity as a product and therefore how it applies in their particular role in relation to clients.”
He said the product is also notable for the flexibility of its definitions, particularly at the time of claiming, which allows planners to tailor it to “whatever product their clients want it to be”. This flexibility is enhanced by an extras package.
Kerr said several enhancements have recently been made to the product, one of which is based around the ‘severe disability’ definition.
“We have introduced what we call a ‘10-hour’ definition, which enables a disabled client to work up to 10 hours per week and still receive the full benefit for severe disability.
“Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t insist that a client who becomes disabled stop work altogether, but rather, we allow them to work just long enough to keep their businesses ticking over.”
The superiority of its three-tier definitions of disability gave Tower’s Income Protection Plan the edge over its rivals in the disability product category last year, although this year it came in second behind Asteron.
However, the quality of the product is still very much evident in its overall flexibility, according to Ron Williamson, Tower’s senior risk product manager.
“We have been very careful to make sure we aren’t trying to mould a client to fit what this product can do, but rather make sure the opposite is the truth.”
He says, by way of example, the product has features that are “relevant to both white collar and blue collar markets, and there is a basic and more comprehensive version of the product”.
To do this, he says, Tower had to “recognise the workforce in Australia has changed in its emphasis on part-time workers, borne out by us being the first life company to provide income protection for these people working 20 to 29 hours”.
Launched on March 30, this year, Tower’s permanent part-time package is available to those aged 19 to 50, working 20 to 29 hours a week — up to a maximum benefit of $6,500 a month.
One of a number of new options added to Income Care that CommInsure is “very proud” of is the imbedding of a total permanent disability (TPD) benefit into the product, according to Clive Levinthal, general manager life, super and investment products.
Levinthal said CommInsure, which took out the bronze award in the disability category, is the “first and only life insurer (in Australia) to imbed a TPD benefit into a long-term income protection [IP] contract”.
The option has proved “very popular with advisers because they no longer have to offer clients both covers, meaning they and their clients get the best of both worlds,” he said.
