Aon Master Trust has given its members the opportunity to increase their death and total and permanent disablement (TPD) cover to $500,000 without having to provide evidence about their health.
Aon Hewitt head of retirement products Peter Lewis said the offer — available until 9 December 2011 — would give members a chance to boost their insurance levels by answering four “very simple and quick questions that remove the need for messy underwriting requirements”.
Members must fill in a short form on the Aon Master Trust website, and answer questions such as “Have you been diagnosed with a terminal illness that reduces your life expectancy to less than 12 months?”.
Lewis said the offer was being made in conjunction with Aon Master Trust’s group insurer, AIA Australia.
“AIA believe there is no material additional selection that will occur as a result of this offer. It’s the insurer that’s taking on the risk, and they’re happy with the work we’ve done with them so they’ve agreed to make this offer to our members.”
He added that Australians were chronically underinsured, and Aon was taking steps to try and address that.
“This is a special offer we have developed for our members with our insurer AIA Australia to help make sure that they’re not like the many Australians who are underinsured,” Lewis said.
The insurance company has joined this year’s awards as a principal partner.
The $135 billion fund has transitioned away from TAL Life Insurance following an “extensive tender process”.
The $80 billion fund is facing legal action over allegedly signing up new members to income protection insurance by default without active member consent.
In a Senate submission, the Financial Services Council has once again called for further clarification that the government will assess the consumer outcomes of group insurance against the enshrined objective of superannuation.