Gavin Teichner

TAL has updated its flagship retail product, Accelerated Protection, including the launch of the TPD Support Option, a new approach in the Australian life insurance market. The insurer has also strengthened Income Protection for self-employed customers, delivering added support during a claim.  

Gavin Teichner, TAL Chief Executive – Individual Life, said the changes reflected TAL’s commitment to evolving product design in line with changing customer needs, clinical insights and financial adviser feedback.

“Our focus is on ensuring TAL’s products reflect how Australians live and work today and deliver genuine value. We’ve taken an evidence-based approach with these changes to Accelerated Protection to ensure meaningful support for those who need it, while maintaining value for all our customers.”

Introducing TAL’s TPD Support Option, designed around real customer health journeys

TAL recognises that every customer’s recovery is unique. Developed through extensive research and consultation with customers, advisers, GPs and specialist clinicians, the TPD Support Option has been designed specifically for certain mental health, chronic fatigue and functional conditions where recovery outcomes can vary significantly.

Customers who choose this option receive 20% of their sum insured each year for claims involving these conditions, provided they continue to meet the TPD criteria at annual review. This flexible structure provides ongoing financial support during recovery, with the certainty that if they’re unable to return to work, they’ll receive their full sum insured over time. Claims for all other health conditions are paid as a full lump sum.

During their claim, customers can also access tailored health programs through TAL Health for Life to support their recovery.

“The TPD Support Option recognises that recovery is rarely straightforward. Some people can return to work with the right support and treatment, while others, unfortunately, cannot. Its flexible approach helps people through their recovery journey while maintaining strong financial protection for those permanently unable to work,” said Mr Teichner.

Supporting self-employed customers when an illness or injury affects their work

Recognising that self-employed Australians face unique challenges when they can’t work, TAL has introduced two improvements to Income Protection to better support business continuity during illness or injury. Key updates include redesigned offsets for ongoing income, and updated waiting period rules that allow customers to undertake limited administrative tasks during the waiting period without affecting their eligibility.

These changes reflect the realities of business ownership, giving self-employed customers greater confidence that their cover will support them through recovery and help to keep their business running.

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Alexis Denby

Alexis Denby has taken on an expanded role, leading life insurer TAL’s new Consumer and Growth Team.

As General Manager, Consumer and Growth, Lexie will lead TAL’s direct and advised customer growth initiatives, ensuring TAL’s products and services remain relevant, valued and accessible for more Australians.

Gavin Teichner, Chief Executive – Individual Life said: “Lexie’s appointment reflects TAL’s continued focus on meeting the evolving protection needs of Australians. Lexie’s leadership and expertise have been critical in positioning TAL as a market leader in the insurance industry. Lexie and her team are truly focused on what Australians want and need from us as an insurer, and are working to develop even clearer, more targeted products and services for our direct and retail customers.

Ms Denby said: “I am thrilled to take on this new role. As the expectations and needs of Australian consumers change, we must innovate to meet them – from strengthening our partnerships to reach and help more Australians, sharpening our focus on the distinct needs of Australians throughout their lifetimes, or working to deliver a more meaningful digital insurance experiences.”

“I am focused delivering great value for our customers, ensuring Australians can access the protection they need when they need it most.”

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Gavin Teichner

Leading life insurer, TAL, is making it faster and easier for Australians to access cover with simplified underwriting that significantly reduces medical test requirements for new Life, Total and Permanent Disability and Income Protection insurance applications.

As a result, nearly 45 per cent^[1] fewer new customers will need to undertake a mandatory medical test when they apply for cover through an adviser or directly from TAL. Similar changes were made in July for Australians purchasing additional insurance through their super fund. On average, these test results take more than a week.

TAL General Manager, Performance, Portfolio Management and Underwriting, Liesje Jansen van Rensburg, said: “TAL’s ambition is to make underwriting as quick and simple as possible. A more streamlined underwriting process saves our customers and advisers time and makes it easier to do business with us.”

“We’re using data and insights combined with expertise from TAL’s Health Services team to make underwriting more efficient. These changes mean we’ll continue to ask the right questions to appropriately manage risk, price our products fairly, and ensure we’re here to support all our customers and partners over the long term.”

Gavin Teichner, TAL Chief Executive – Individual Life, said the changes reflected TAL’s focus on being a good partner and supporter of financial advisers, as well as helping more Australians access the value of protection that life insurance provides.

“Making it easier and faster for advisers to do business with us is crucial to ensuring risk advice is sustainable, and more Australians can access the guidance and advice they need.”

“Being the best life insurance partner for advisers means improving the end-to-end customer experience from faster underwriting and onboarding to offering relevant and valued products and services. It also means making it easier for advisers to quote and write risk and engage with their clients around life insurance. Most importantly, we continue to focus on how we price risk so that it is fair and sustainable for all TAL customers, for life.”

Underwriting changes include:

• Life and TPD: Customers aged 49 and younger can now apply for up to $2 million in cover without mandatory medical tests (increased from $1.5 million).
• Income Protection: Customers aged 44 and younger can now apply for up to $15,000 per month cover without mandatory medical tests (increased from $12,500 per month).
• Reduced testing: TAL has removed some mandatory tests for larger sums insured to further simplify underwriting.

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Gavin Teichner

Australian life insurer TAL has appointed Gavin Teichner to the role of Chief Executive – Individual Life, commencing 1 October 2024.

The appointment follows the promotion announced last month of current Chief Executive – Individual Life Fiona Macgregor to the role of Group CEO and Managing Director, commencing 1 October 2024.

Since joining TAL in 2009 Mr Teichner has held a number of senior leadership roles. Since 2018, in his current role as Executive General Manager – Individual Life, he has had a broad remit across product development and management, underwriting, pricing and data analytics.

Fiona Macgregor said, “Gavin has an enormous breadth and depth of expertise across our Direct-to-consumer and Retail businesses. He is a forward-thinking leader, with a strong focus on product sustainability and ensuring TAL is a great choice for more Australians.”

Mr Teichner said, “I am honoured to have the opportunity to lead a team of people focused on delivering high-quality and industry-leading products and services to our customers, financial advisers and corporate partners.”

Mr Teichner is an Actuary and has an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

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Gavin Teichner

It is two years since APRA stepped in to address the cycle of losses and price increases in the Individual Disability Income Insurance (IDII) market. In that time, we have seen the landscape shift as life insurers have grappled with finding the important balance between sustainability, affordability, and value.

In October 2021, we saw a significant refresh of Individual Income Protection (IP) offerings. Whilst all products were underpinned by similar guidelines, life insurers launched a diverse range of products, each with its own lens on how to balance coverage with long-term affordability.

Since then, as financial advisers and customers have begun to familiarise themselves with these new products, life insurers are naturally continuing to update them in response to this feedback, leading to some convergence around a set of new product benchmarks.

Has the industry made progress?

Changes made to the IDII products and practices appear to be delivering the intended outcomes. APRA reports1 show the profitability of IDII has improved. This suggests a positive trend towards sustainable products and more affordable premiums for customers over time. Despite the inevitable convergence of some products, we are seeing advisers recommending benefit designs and options that were not previously available, giving customers – their clients – more choice.

1 https://www.apra.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-08/QLIPS%20Highlights%20June%202023.pdf

There is no doubt that higher interest rates and a strong employment position have also contributed to the improvement, but there is reason to be hopeful that the take up of a range of sustainably designed policies is helping to provide better ongoing customer outcomes.

This has never been more important as Australians face cashflow pressures and juggle tight budgets. Large, unexpected changes in costs are proving very difficult for customers, resulting in many reconsidering, reducing, or even cancelling cover.

Providing affordable yet sustainable coverage in the long-run

The challenges of growing in a competitive yet subdued market, and customers looking for value amidst cost-of-living pressures present opportunities for life insurers to provide more affordable and competitive pricing for customers.

In providing affordable products for consumers, particularly at policy inception, life insurers should closely consider the impact of how premium changes over time affect affordability. This is a point also reiterated by the industry regulators. While more affordable premiums at policy inception provide short-term benefits to consumers, in many cases products with lower initial pricing result in higher pricing in later years. For the benefit of customers, greater focus must be placed on how premiums costs evolve over time. This should also include providing options to consumers around how they can manage future premiums, such as preventative health measures that may lower premium costs.

For life insurers to be successful in delivering good long-term customer outcomes, it is crucial to focus on strategies that provide stable, affordable pricing over the longer term.

Ensuring all products remain sustainable for life

While significant progress has been made in designing more sustainable IP products, more can be done to extend this same thinking into other areas of Disability Cover. TPD products have been influenced by a similar range of factors impacting IP products in recent years.

Chief among these considerations is ensuring the benefits can adequately support the claimant during their time of need while remaining affordable and accessible.

Our working lives have evolved, and so too should the way products respond to continuous changes in occupation and income patterns, which will mean that aspects of TPD product definitions may need to be updated to better respond to these trends.

At its core, our industry’s overall objective should be to provide greater certainty to consumers around future premium costs. This aligns with customers’ expectations, and ultimately builds trust in the industry as a whole.

A long-term sustainable vision for the future

At TAL, we have continued to review our propositions to ensure they continue to meet the needs of advisers and their diverse clients. In doing so, we have identified opportunities to meet the needs of a broader set of customers who may previously have found it difficult to access the cover they needed.

However, in making these changes, we have not lost sight of our responsibilities as a product designer and to the pool of all insured customers (those who claim and those who do not). We remain committed to ensuring we produce stable, predictable outcomes for customers over the long term, alongside upfront affordability. We are also working to leverage the lessons of the last two years to proactively address aspects of TPD product design in ways that continue to support customers.

Long-term sustainability requires an ongoing examination of products, and product design, and the industry must get this right to ensure Australians can obtain cover and retain that cover for longer to meet their needs.

By Gavin Teichner, Executive General Manager: Individual Life

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Gavin Teichner

To ensure the life insurance sector is sustainable for all Australians, it is essential that we bring progressive thinking and have a long-term sustainable vision for the future.

Across the industry over recent years, we have seen an increase in the cost of claims and, consequently, price increases which have had lasting impacts for both advisers and customers. To ensure long-term sustainability it is critical that the industry gets the product design right so that the benefits paid align to the product’s purpose. This will help both customers and financial advisers – customers, with product affordability, and advisers in supporting clients to choose a product that best suits their needs.

Individual Disability Income Insurance (IDII) products meet a critical consumer need and, as an industry, we have a responsibility to meet that need now, and into the future. Updates to the design of IDII will bring fundamental change, challenge, and a period of adjustment for the market, however they will also bring great opportunity for insurers to reframe the value that these products provide to consumers; supporting them during what are often their most difficult times.

The upside of new and more sustainable IDII products is that they will deliver much more certainly to customers and advisers about future pricing, while also providing benefit designs that have greater clarity on exactly what the benefits are. A more affordable product and greater certainty on the product benefits has the potential to increase the size of the market, enabling advisers to protect more Australians when they need it the most.

Building confidence around the product changes

Historically, we have not seen dramatic change in product design and products have been reasonably similar. Advisers have become accustomed to the existing product suite, knowing exactly what product suits each of their clients. In many instances, this means advisers feel a level of unease that the dramatic de-commoditisation of products may not meet their clients’ needs in the future.

There is an essential role for life insurers to work with financial advisers through this change, to communicate the benefits of how the changes will offer existing customers more choice to manage product affordability, as well as provide potential new clients with clear, easy to understand options. There is also an important opportunity for the claims payment process to be simplified and sped up through the design of simpler and more affordable products and processes.

Life insurers can help advisers through these changes with clear communications and client resources; highlighting the aims of the product, what they provide, and most importantly, how the benefit designs will help customers understand and value their cover. This will drive greater confidence in the life insurance industry as a whole.

Challenging established practice and embracing the opportunities

It’s important work, and the IDII changes go beyond just increasing the simplicity of product, process, and options. The true greater value lies in the ability of advisers to effectively communicate to clients that the products will be more affordable and more responsive to the rapidly changing society we are living in today.

More specifically, employment has undergone significant changes and we must adapt to that. Many people are changing jobs more frequently, there is greater flexibility to work part time and from anywhere, and a number of traditional jobs are ceasing to exist, so we must ensure our products sustainably service these lifestyle changes.

There is a need here for us to relook at a lot of our core assumptions about things which have informed previous product design, and to test what’s become established practice. Better disability products will ensure that customers who have changed their employment or lifestyle no longer pay for cover they do not need, whilst being responsive to changing employment conditions.

Looking towards the post-implementation of IDII changes

At TAL, we have put great effort into conducting market research into customer needs and expectations. This has enabled us to uncover insights and better understand where existing products need to be evolved to meet the changing needs of customers in terms of relevance, sustainability and value.

We are committed to bettering the industry and ensuring that our existing products continue to evolve alongside the new ones. We want our customers to be confident in the cover they have, the options available to them, and that they are protected should the unexpected occur. TAL has endeavoured to play a leading role within the industry during a changing time, contributing to the confidence Australians have in us as life insurers and the protection we provide.

Through that, we have the opportunity to educate advisers that in the long term, there will be incredible benefits from offering new products that align to their promise of stability, which in turn will help support the different economic and changing socioeconomic circumstances of their client base.

By Gavin Teichner, Executive General Manager – Individual Life

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The key changes include the realignment of the business around two business lines – Individual Life and Group Life and Investments.

Previously TAL’s Chief Distribution Officer, Tim Thorne has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer – Individual Life and is responsible for the end-to-end customer and adviser propositions within TAL’s Direct and Retail markets. Previously TAL’s Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Howard has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer – Group Life and Investments, leading TAL’s activities and capabilities in the Group Life, Investments, Health Services, and retirement markets.

In addition, Darren Wickham has been appointed as Executive General Manager, Group Life and Gavin Teichner appointed as  Executive General Manager, Individual Life – these appointments reflect the size and scope of their responsibilities within these business lines.

Critical to the delivery within Individual Life and Group Life and Investments is TAL’s commitment to its customers, particularly around claims. Reflecting that priority, TAL has recently appointed Jenny Oliver to the newly created Executive role of Chief Claims Officer. Jenny was previously General Manager – Group Insurance.

TAL Group CEO and Managing Director, Brett Clark said, “It’s important that our leadership structure reflects our ongoing commitment to our customers, partners and community, and the importance we place on each of the markets in which we operate. Executive Leadership roles with an end-to-end focus on customer and partner outcomes in those respective channels, will enable us to realise greater agility in a rapidly changing landscape and allow for more effective and efficient management of our relationships with our customers and partners.

“I am confident that this structure, which is aligned to our overarching business strategy, will set us up well for ongoing success as we continue striving to deliver for our customers, partners, our people and the business as a whole.”

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Dr Sally Phillips

Over 1,500 advisers across Australia have registered for the 2018 TAL Adviser Roadshows, which begin in Adelaide this Wednesday.

Advisers will be able to exchange insights with members of TAL’s Leadership Team, including Brett Clark, TAL Group CEO and Managing Director, Justin Delaney, TAL Chief Operating Officer, Tim Thorne, TAL Chief Distribution Officer, Niall McConville, TAL General Manager, Retail Distribution, Gavin Teichner, TAL General Manager, Individual Life and Dr. Sally Phillips, TAL General Manager, Health Services.

Dr. Sally Phillips will be speaking to roadshow attendees about how TAL partners with advisers to support their customers’ health and wellbeing.

Dr. Phillips said, “Engaging with customers on their health and wellbeing is one way advisers can deepen their customer relationships while positively impacting the health of their customers.

“With life insurers moving away from a purely transactional model to playing an active role in wellbeing, risk advisers have an opportunity to be a key stakeholder in empowering their customers to think proactively about their health.

“TAL is passionate about enabling advisers to support the health of their customers at every stage of life. One of the ways we do this is by aligning ourselves as closely as possible with the health community and providing advisers with educational tools that they can use to support their customers during their time of need.

“By working together to support our customers’ health and wellbeing, we are creating shared value and partnership through our customers’ entire journey,” she said.

See the full event details or to register for the TAL Adviser Roadshows.

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Gavin Teichner

Australia’s largest life insurer TAL has launched some key enhancements to its award winning financial protection retail product suite, Accelerated Protection.

The new version of Accelerated Protection not only contains various product improvements, but a number of newly enhanced service elements have been introduced.

TAL Life General Manager Retail Insurance Gavin Teichner said the changes were aimed at improving the adviser and customer experience.

“TAL is committed to building on the existing strength and long-term sustainability of its product and service offering,” he said.

“The new features of Accelerated Protection coupled with the new service elements are all designed to make life easier for advisers and customers.”

“The product enhancements will all be available to existing customers, where available, as we constantly strive to provide the best life insurance solutions for Australians.”

With an estimated 70% of all life insurance now purchased within a superannuation structure, TAL has developed a new income protection product structure that provides customers with the flexibility of cover both in and outside of super.

Accelerated Protection’s new Superlink IP structure allows customers to link an Income Protection Super policy  to an Income Protection Standard or Premium policy outside of super.

This provides the value and tax advantages of IP through super but with the benefit of highly-featured cover outside super.

Key enhancements include:

• A series of new critical illness benefits relating to heart conditions to be made available to new and existing customers (where available).
• New Superlink Income Protection structure that allows linking between super and non-super insurance products, but importantly addresses any limitations associated with structuring through super thereby providing retail protection at superannuation prices.
• The IP benefit ‘to Age 70’ is now available for many occupation classes via the TAL Superannuation and Insurance Fund and platform super.
• Service changes that streamline the tele-interview booking process, almost eliminating cancellations and fast-tracking application completion.

“We’re always looking to build on our strengths to deliver high quality outcomes for our customers,” Mr Teichner said.

“Our focus with this upgrade has been to deliver long-term and sustainable insurance solutions, and to ensure that our current customers don’t miss out on these enhancements where available.

“At TAL, our aim is to help everyday Australians protect the things they love and value and make it easy for them to do so.”

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