Super, Life and General meet at the Crossroads

Workers compensation claimants are increasingly turning to Income Protection (IP) and Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) benefits when their weekly payments cease. However, someone with the same injury, but injured outside of work, will only have access to Income Protection and/or TPD benefits (a.k.a. disability insurance products). This is an example of where insurance products are not well matched with an individual’s needs following injury or illness. More recently, these group life insurance products, i.e. IP, Death and TPD offered through superannuation funds have sustained poor profitability. In this paper, we aim to share some parallels between the issues facing group life insurance with similar general insurance related experiences, and from these suggest some possible avenues for further investigation. We consider the range of insurance products and government provided benefits available to an individual following illness or injury. If we can identify the overlaps and gaps in injury and illness insurance needs, we can start to design products that better fit with each other. In this way, the traditional silos between life insurance, general insurance, and superannuation should converge to better meet the claimant’s needs. For disability insurance to be sustainable and value adding in the long term, we suggest a re-think of the product. At the end of this paper, we also suggest some ideas that may form part of the solution.