Zurich Financial Services Australia has launched accident and health (A&H) cover as part of the insurer’s global push into the business.

Sean Walker, formerly Ace Insurance A&H Manager, will head up the new Zurich operation, with former Ace A&H Underwriting Manager David Platt becoming Zurich’s National A&H Underwriter.

The move into the A&H sector has been hailed by Zurich Australia as “a major strategic move” in its program to focus on innovation and customer service. It says the features of its new corporate travel and group personal accident and sickness offerings will set it apart from the rest of the market.

The corporate travel policy comes with a new “travel locator” service, which Zurich says is “a revolutionary technological initiative” combining mobile wireless handheld technology with its Zurich Assist emergency assistance system.

It provides location-specific travel, health and security information and alerts, direct access to emergency medical, travel and security services, web-based tracking and other features.

Zurich also plans to include A&H on its Z.streamXpress end-to-end web-based commercial policy processing system next year.

Zurich GM General Insurance Shane Doyle says the service is a response to “the market gravitating towards centralising claims servicing off-shore, using inexperienced third-party claims providers and generally dumbing down the service offering”.