AMP reveals 14 enhancements

Insurers need to get better at explaining the value of their products to clients, AMP’s general manager of investments and insurance says.

Friday, November 6th 2015, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

AMP has released 14 product enhancements to its LifeTrack and Risk Protection Plan personal insurances.

Therese Singleton said AMP was confident it already had solid products but consumer behaviour moved quickly and it had to be constantly monitored.

She said the AMP trauma, life and TPD products all now topped their respective ratings.

Among the changes is a new accidental lump sum option for its LifeTrack Income Cover, which can be paid out in cases of serious disability or death, with no offsets. It can be added all existing LifeTrack Income Cover products.

For a 45-year-old man, the addition of the lump sum cover would increase monthly premiums by about $5 and pay out an extra $250,000 lump sum in the case of death.

Customers can now also receive a discount when they buy back their trauma cover after a heart condition or cancer claim.

AMP said this would help with persistency because customers who had made a heart or cancer claim could have to pay the full premium if they went to another provider.

LifeTrack’s Disability Cover will now cover customers to age 70.

Singleton said that reflected the fact that many people no longer retired at 65.

It has simplified its Alzheimer’s and dementia definitions so customers may qualify more easily.

AMP has introduced more plain English and terms familiar to customers wherever possible.

Singleton said the problem of under-insurance needed to be addressed in New Zealand and insurers should do what they could to make life easier for their existing customers as well as attracting new people to see the benefit of life insurance.

“We need to be better at explaining the value of insurance.”

That would mean working out how to make it simpler and more affordable, she said, including tweaking the application process to make it as easy as possible for those coming into the system.

Tags: AMP