insurance market
In a move it described as shaking up the Australian life insurance
market’s status quo, European insurer Allianz’s Australian unit has
slashed the cost of cover and greatly simplified the application
process. Spearheading Allianz Australia’s initiative is Allianz
Life Plan, a new product that can be bought via the internet or a
call centre.
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“What we’ve done today is to make it possible for people to get the
life cover they need at prices 20 percent to 30 percent less than
they are paying today,” said Jonathan Poole, Allianz Australia’s
CEO. It will take just 12 minutes to buy the new Allianz life
insurance cover online or over the phone, compared to a typical
purchase through an insurance adviser which can take up to eight
weeks, he added.
“We know six in ten people with dependent children do not have
enough life insurance to look after their families if something
happened to them,” continued Poole. “We also know that
superannuation is only providing people with 20 percent of the life
insurance they need.”
He stressed that surveys had established this, and yet life
insurance remains complex, hard to obtain and too expensive. “The
industry has perpetuated these problems with high commissions and
confusing policy wording,” said Poole.
He added that most people do not know that when they buy insurance
from an adviser, generally all of their first year’s premium
payment goes to the adviser as commission. “It’s no wonder
Australians find life insurance expensive,” said Poole.
Allianz’s new product enables customers to obtain up to A$1.25
million ($1.1 million) life cover without seeing an insurance
adviser. Policies are fully underwritten on the spot, cover is
immediately available and policy documents are either e-mailed or
available via download. Policy documents are seven pages long
compared with an industry average of 80 pages. Critical illness
cover and permanent disability cover is also available online,
while for all policies no medical examinations or blood tests are
required by Allianz.
