People who attended the recent Conference of Major Superannuation Funds may recall having a freshly printed copy of Super Review thrust into their hands as they walked about. Most of the thrusting was carried out by the energetic marketing team of a relatively new player to the superannuation arena.
That company is International Underwriting Services, better known as ‘IUS’. Their distribution of Super Review at CMSF came about because the magazine contained the IUS/Super Review Super Outlook 2004 Survey, the results of which will be published in next month’s issue.
IUS is a major provider of income protection insurance, and according to its general manager income protection George Hodgson, the company finds itself in the peculiar position of being very well-known almost everywhere — except in the superannuation sector.
He says this is probably attributable to the fact that IUS has, until recently, never advertised nationally with most of the company’s business in the superannuation industry coming via word of mouth.
Hodgson says that over the past two or three years, several large superannuation funds have turned to IUS to provide income protection for their members, and that the company’s growth in the sector has encouraged the management to now commence a major superannuation marketing initiative.
Explaining the IUS marketing rationale, Hodgson says it was a question of looking at the company’s strengths and the market’s needs.
“We have a lot of in-house market research expertise, so first of all we utilised this to determine whether the significant level of security, combined with the proven terms and conditions of our income protection policy, as well as our in-house claims expertise, would be particularly valued by the market. The research told us is it would,” he says.
“In fact, the research demonstrated that from a fund decision-makers’ standpoint, some of the most valued or desired features of income protection insurance are provider and product security, as well as dependability in terms of claims. So we here we are.”
Hodgson says the IUS/Super Review Survey represents a key element in the company’s campaign to raise its profile in the superannuation sector at the same time as hopefully delivering a useful service to industry participants.
The joint IUS/Super Review Survey is intended to not only identify the major issues confronting the industry but to also reflect the views of the major industry players on key issues.
