Xplan rejects MLC marketing claims

Greg Einfeld

Financial services technology platform provider Xplan has gone to unusual lengths to distance itself from marketing material issued by major insurer MLC, declaring to clients that it does not support claims relating to capability clauses.

Xplan Technology research manager Louie Dimovski confirmed to Money Management that he had issued an email in late February to all clients in which he had expressed concern that material issued by MLC “contains, in our view, misleading information”.

Dimovski then went on to detail Xplan’s concerns, including strongly denying that Xplan endorsed the distribution of such material and the implication that Xplan believed the exclusion/inclusion of a capability clause was the most important aspect of income protection.

Speaking to Money Management, Dimovski said his email had been distributed in response to issues that had been raised by a number of clients of Xplan.

“I wanted to make it clear that we did not endorse the rationale behind some of the assertions that were being made,” he said.

Dimovski said that he would be reinforcing Xplan’s position in a newsletter to clients later this month.

The general manager of MLC Insurance, Greg Einfeld, said in terms of what he understood Xplan had suggested, he did not believe MLC had been guilty of implying Xplan support.

“What MLC has done is we have taken material produced by Xplan in conjunction with their independent legal advisers and we have used that material with Xplan’s consent to support the position MLC has taken in the market on this important issue,” he said.

“I think there is an important difference between using information that Xplan has produced with their consent and Xplan endorsing our position, and I certainly would not suggest Xplan has endorsed our position,” Einfeld said.

“We are using their material because it supports what we have believed for a long time — that there has been a misunderstanding about how claims reduction clauses work and how they are used in the industry,” he said. “I think it is important that we all get on the same page with respect to these clauses and how they work.”

Einfeld said he believed Xplan might have been concerned that some other parties in the industry could have implied that Xplan was supporting MLC’s position.

“Xplan have done exactly the right thing here. They have acted independently, they have sought independent advice, and that advice happens to coincide with the position MLC has taken,” he said. “They have sent out the message that they are independent, and that is what they have reiterated to the industry.”