Connelly Temple has been pulled up by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) over the wording of a brochure promoting its range of life in-surance products.
Connelly Temple has been pulled up by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) over the wording of a brochure promoting its range of life in-surance products.
Connelly Temple has accepted an enforceable undertaking from ASIC that it will review all of its insurance policies plus customer information brochures and correct any misleading wording.
The action by ASIC follows a complaint from a financial adviser who was con-cerned over what he thought was “misleading” wording in Connelly Temple’s Su-per Savings Plan brochure.
The brochure contained a clause which stated that customers applying for death, total or permanent or salary continuance insurance may have their insurance cover restricted or a benefit excluded or pay a premium loading if they were in “certain hazardous occupations”.
The hazardous occupations were not defined in the brochure and the adviser was concerned that his clients may be charged a premium loading when their occupa-tions are not hazardous by industry standards.
ASIC says Connelly Temple “co-operated fully in relation to the investigation of the complaint”. The group will review all insurance policies issued under the cus-tomer information brochure in question since June 1998.
ASIC’s NSW director of enforcement, Allen Turton says the action illustrated the need for insurance companies to provide clear and carefully defined brochures which “avoid use of industry jargon”.
He says ASIC is currently conducting a national surveillance campaign focussed on the sale of disability insurance.
“We want to make sure that consumers are receiving enough information from their agents and life companies to make a fully informed investment decision,” he says.
