OnePath outshone its competitors in the risk trauma products category in the Money Management/DEXX&R Adviser Choice Risk Awards, with MLC Insurance Critical Illness Plus Ride – EBO taking silver, and BT Financial Group's (BTFG) Living Insurance Plus winning bronze.
OnePath's OneCare Trauma Premier got the gong after OnePath took special efforts to focus on the quality of the definitions of its trauma products, according to head of life insurance, ANZ Global Wealth Gerard Kerr.
Kerr said the firm re-evaluated whether it should make payouts to cancer patients before the operation so that the proceeds could help with the treatment.
Once a cancer patient receives their diagnosis and treatment plans, and the firm is also privy to the information, the proceeds become available to the patient so they can choose their treatment options based on the funds available.
The firm also looked at the 90-day waiting period on some of the product definitions and thought it would be in the client's interest if the waiting period kicked in when the insurer received the application rather than when they accepted the policy.
"From the client point of view it's less of a waiting period [since] the 90-day period has already started when we receive the application," Kerr said.
Taking out the silver was MLC Insurance Critical Illness Plus Ride – EBO, which won the award for its 'Best Doctors' offering.
"This is a truly unique feature in the retail insurance market, which connects policy holders and their families to a global network of peer-nominated leading medical specialists at no additional cost to the policy holder," MLC general manager insurance product and underwriting Sean McCormack said.
Coming in third was BTFG's Living Insurance Plus, which showed its continuing success in this category.
BTFG Life Insurance Products national manager Scott Moffit said BTFG focused on including features advisers requested in a trauma product.
"We built in all the partial and full paying conditions to allow advisers to engage with clients knowing they were getting a quality solution that will pay on claims," he said.
