life/risk

Editorial

Will direct life sales be viable after the Royal Commission?

The Royal Commission has laid bare appalling practices within some of the insurance call centres, making direct life/risk sales something which may bring into question th...

Life/Risk

Allianz attempted to “correct” independent reports

Allianz attempted to either change or kill two separate independent reports into its compliance procedures that were unfavourable to the insurer’s processes, the Royal Co...

Life/Risk

Allianz investigating historic compliance issues

The Royal Commission has heard that Allianz is checking past compliance issues to see if they should have been reported to a regulator, in addition to its approximately 1...

Life/Risk

AMP charged clients life insurance premiums post-death

The Royal Commission today heard that AMP failed to refund members’ estates for fees charged on life insurance after AMP knew they had died....

Life/Risk

AMP charged non-smokers a smokers’ premium

AMP Limited charged a non-smoker $72,000 worth of premiums designed to be for smokers under a system that required non-smokers to submit a declaration identifying themsel...

Life/Risk

TAL added to mentally ill insured’s stress: RC

The Royal Commission has heard that TAL’s treatment of an insured not only denied the mentally ill customer assistance at various points of her claim, but also actively c...

Life/Risk

Did TAL incentivise managers to deny claims?

TAL has today faced rigorous questioning by the Royal Commission as to whether case managers and senior staff were incentivised to deny claims as quickly as possible....

Life/Risk

TAL investigators gathered info under false pretences, RC told

Multiple TAL case managers appeared to have instructed investigators to attend hospitals and police stations under false pretences as part of what appeared to be a firm-w...

Life/Risk

CommInsure admits to misleading advertising

The Royal Commission has heard that CommInsure ran misleading and deceptive ads, with Commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC suggesting its reprimand by ASIC for doing so was ligh...

Life/Risk

Cancer patient’s claim denied despite medical support: RC

The Royal Commission has heard that a CommInsure customer was denied a claim following breast cancer treatment, despite two doctors confirming to the insurer that her pro...

Life/Risk

CommInsure stuck to outdated definition despite risk to customers

CommInsure was aware that its definition of “heart attack” for insurance claims was outdated and could potentially result in the rejection of otherwise legitimate claims ...

Life/Risk

Freedom admits to dodgy policy retention practices

Freedom’s retention practices make it “unnecessarily difficult to cancel [insurance] policies” with just 28.5 per cent of customers trying to cancel funeral insurance cov...

Life/Risk

Insurer hit with 72 attempted cancellations daily

Freedom received 72 cancellation calls a day from customers for its funeral insurance policy over a 13-month period, with 13 per cent of those calls coming during the fir...

Life/Risk

Insurers feel pressure ahead of new accounting standards

Australian insurers are behind their international counterparts in readiness for new major new accounting standards, a survey by KPMG has shown....

Life/Risk

Freedom ends sales practice right before RC appearance

Freedom ended dubious sales practices for four insurance products just days before appearing before the Royal Commission, then failed to disclose this information to the ...