Southern Cross drops $60k benefit by stealth: agents

While Southern Cross is within its rights to change the benefits it offers, advisers are complaining about the lack of communication and the shock their clients are experiencing at finding they don't have the cover they thought they did, just at the point when they actually need to cover.

“Whilst they have the right in the policy to change the wording, simply removing this significant benefit without advice is, I suggest, uneithical and could cause many members to be seriously affected,” says Graeme Lindsay, who provides analysis to life and health insurance agents through his firm Strategy Financial Services.

Jon-Paul Hale of  Willowgrove Consulting says it is “arrogant of Southern Cross to suggest we have and know all about all the conditions” and that agents should have been aware of the changes.

“This means that their existing policyholders won't get access to treatments they expect and largely have no avenue for retribution with Southern Cross either,” Hale says.