iExtend helps Australians maintain valuable life insurance cover when they need it most
David Sarkis
Market entrant iExtend will address a gap in the life insurance market by providing life insurance policyholders who are committed to cancelling their policies with another option, saving desperate Australian’s billions of dollars of cover forgone every year.
iExtend has launched an innovative new life insurance offer which partners with life insurance owners to share co-ownership of the life policy, paying ongoing premiums on the cover which would have otherwise been cancelled.
By co-owning a life policy with iExtend, policyholders eliminate future premium payments from the percentage of the policy that was to be cancelled, providing a greater portion of any eventual claim for the policyholders family as well as greater financial certainty for them at time when they may need it most.
Benefits of co-owning with iExtend include:
- the opportunity for policyholders to maintain cover where health conditions may be impacting their life expectancy
- greater certainty over the inter-generational transfer of wealth
- increasing consumer confidence in the life insurance industry that it will be there when Australians need it most.
Currently many Australians facing retirement on reduced disposable incomes are driven to cancel their policies due to increasing insurance premiums which can typically rise 10-15% per annum. According to KPMG, the average premium increase per policy for risk products in the 12 months to 31 December 2021 was 12% per annum and 24% over the past two years.[1]
iExtend estimates it will return approximately $25-$50 million in life insurance claim benefits over the next ten years to ordinary Australians who would otherwise have been forfeited as a result of a reluctant cancellation.
According to iExtend CEO David Sarkis, central to the iExtend business model is the desire to lead through innovation, integrity and social prioritisation to address a forgotten segment in the life insurance market.
“iExtend wants to fill a gap in the insurance market and to partner with financial advisers and insurance providers to ensure policyholders can continue the valued relationship they have with them by accessing a flexible, innovative and alternative insurance option.”
iExtend is currently working with adviser networks across the advice industry, including self-licensed advisers which represent the largest adviser segment (24%) of the 17,351 licensed advisers in the market.[2] Advisers are responding to this unique opportunity to maintain the valued relationship they have with their clients and to deliver on their ‘best interest’ obligations.
At the heart of the iExtend offering and its market approach is its leadership team which includes industry stalwart and a former Executive Director of Bankers Trust Australia, Rodney Payne, a cofounder, who has been appointed Chairman and former CEO of MLC and Perpetual, Geoff Lloyd who is Chair of Advisory Board.
“We are excited to be bringing this flexible and innovative life insurance option to the Australian market and to provide a social wellbeing and quality of life benefit to those we partner with whilst also helping the insurance industry provide sustainable products and continue to service this market segment,” said Sarkis.
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