Industry action ahead of Protecting Your Super changes

While the industry prepares itself for the Protecting Your Super changes, some superannuation stakeholders are taking a proactive approach to increasing customer awareness around their life insurance.

With the Protecting Your Super (PYS) changes set to come into effect next month, some in the industry have been running extensive campaigns designed to improve public education around who these changes will impact and how.

Starting 1 July, super accounts that haven’t received contributions for a continuous period of 16 months will have their insurance cancelled, and inactive accounts with balances below $6,000 will be rolled over to the Australian Taxation Office for consolidation.

The PYS legislation, introduced in February this year, gave super funds until 1 April to identify those of their members with inactive accounts, and until 1 May to advise them of the impending changes. For super funds, the challenge ahead is ensuring that affected members understand that the changes could mean losing valuable protection they may not be able to obtain otherwise.

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In recent weeks, life insurer AIA Australia has launched a campaign aimed at getting Australians to “Be Super Sure about Your Insurance Cover”. In partnership with several funds, the campaign’s call to action is for people to “Click. Check. Protect.” A microsite at www.checkmycover.com.au explains how someone can search through the ATO for any super accounts they hold, and then contact the funds to better understand the impact of the PYS changes on them.

In less than two weeks, the “Click. Check. Protect.” campaign has already achieved impressive breadth, with digital advertising reaching nearly 1.5m users, largely through Facebook and Instagram.

Complementing this and ideally creating a “snowball effect” of messaging, industry associations ASFA and the FSC are also running a national campaign called “When did you last check your super?” The industry-wide campaign uses light-hearted animated videos across TV, digital and social media in order to engage Australians and encourage them to contact their super fund in order to make a clear decision about the insurances they have in place.

More widely, these initiatives are part of a concerted industry effort to improve the level and quality of engagement with superannuation members. Since the introduction of the Insurance in Superannuation Voluntary Code of Practice in July 2018, super funds and their insurance partners have been striving to help their members make more informed decisions through the provision of easy-to-understand information. A large part of the focus going forward will be on the development and promotion of digital tools that better equip members to monitor their account activity, positioning them to more easily understand their level of insurance cover and the impact it’s having on their super balance.

With the final days ahead of the 1 July deadline looming, it is more important than ever that the industry continues to try to reach members. The more informed consumers are on insurance, the better they’ll be able to understand its value and ensure they have the protection they need.

You can find more information about AIA Australia’s public awareness campaign at www.checkmycover.com.au. 

Copyright © 2019 AIA Australia Limited (ABN 79 004 837 861 AFSL 230043). This is general information only, without taking into account factors like the objectives, financial situation, needs or personal circumstances of any individual and is not intended to be financial, legal, tax, medical, nutritional, health, fitness or other advice.