Insurance via super most effective and efficient
Superannuation represents the most efficient and effective way of delivering life insurance in Australia, according to former TAL chief executive, Jim Minto.
Delivering the industry oration to the Association of Superannuation Association (ASFA) annual conference on the Gold Coast, Minto pointed out that the superannuation system was responsible for 70 per cent of life insurance coverage in Australia and that, despite the critics, the percentage of claims paid via super funds had never been higher.
He said it needed to be understood that the superannuation system was delivering, and that, in terms of claims and benefits paid, its performance could be regarded as world class.
Minto, a former chairman and interim chief executive of ASFA, said there could be no doubt that parts of the insurance within super regime were very good, but there were also parts that could be improved.
He said improving those parts of the system would be vital to rebuilding community confidence in insurance within super.
Elsewhere in his oration, Minto took the Government to task for setting the bar too low by defining the purpose of super as being to supplement the Age Pension.
Instead, he said the objective should be achieving a comfortable retirement for as many people as possible with ASFA's objective of 50 per cent by 2050 being a laudable objective.
He said the Government needed to be doing more to deal with the key issues now, rather than being forced to do so by a crisis in the future.
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