Death improves in value
18 May 2009
Death cover is offering policyholders more at lower prices, according to independent research organisation SuperRatings...
Life Insurance
Battle lines drawn over commission v fees
11 May 2009
The Financial Planning Association has reacted sharply to the Association of Financial Advisers’ rejection of the FPA’s call for financial planners to be paid entirely through fees from 2012...
Regional life market outlook negative: S&P
11 May 2009
Australia and NZ’s life insurance markets are doing fine, but that hasn’t stopped Standard and Poor’s revising the life insurance outlook for the wider Asia-Pacific region to negative...
Axa reconsiders ambitious growth target
11 May 2009
Axa Asia Pacific CEO Andy Penn has moved to distance the company from its ambitious aim of doubling enterprise value by 2012...
AMP posts 63% cashflow increase
11 May 2009
AMP Financial Services net cashflows increased 63% during the first quarter as increasing superannuation contributions from employers offset lower discretionary contributions...
Commission for advisers ‘unsustainable’: FPA
04 May 2009
The Financial Planning Association has recommended to the Federal Government that financial planners be paid entirely through fees rather than commissions from 2012...
Financial services industry awaits super review
04 May 2009
Australia’s $1.1 trillion superannuation industry is waiting with interest to see what shape the Federal Government review of the superannuation system will take...
AIG Life poaches senior executive from Tower
04 May 2009
Tower Australia’s Head of Group Sales Craig Extrem will move to AIG Life after being appointed National Manager of Client Markets for the company’s insurance division...
Life underinsurance hurts families, says IFSA
04 May 2009
Australian families are receiving an average life insurance payout of just $91,000 on the death of a partner as underinsurance booms...
Aviva silent on plan to quit Australia
27 April 2009
Life insurer Aviva Australia has refused to comment on speculation that it may withdraw from the local market...
Axa outflow reflects market ‘rebalancing’
27 April 2009
Axa Asia Pacific wrote 24% more new financial protection business in Australia in the three months to March 31 this year compared with 12 months earlier...
Job done for retiring IFSA boss
20 April 2009
Investment and Financial Services Association CEO Richard Gilbert is confident he will leave the life insurance industry in good shape when he retires from the top job in September...
Aviva offers 12-month life premium waiver
20 April 2009
Tapping into community concerns about the economy, Aviva is offering to waive premiums for up to 12 months cumulatively on lump sum life policies held by clients who lose their jobs...
Macquarie slashes executive bonuses
06 April 2009
QBE CEO Frank O’Halloran’s changed retirement arrangements aren’t the only ones coming under scrutiny as governments and shareholders get toey...
Zurich tackles life underinsurance
06 April 2009
Zurich Financial Services Australia has enhanced its life risk policies to encourage financial advisers to recommend products to customers and help overcome problems of underinsurance...
ANZ sheds financial planners
06 April 2009
ANZ will get rid of 58 staff in its financial planning division, saying current market conditions have lowered the demand for investment advice...
Aussie optimism cruels life sales trends
06 April 2009
ING Australia’s life insurance sales were up 25% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with a year earlier, but the company says underinsurance remains a cyclical long-term problem for Australia...
Financial planners to develop beyond compliance
30 March 2009
The Financial Planning Association of Australia expects members to embrace higher-level training and professional development standards from July 1 when its new...
Storm goes into liquidation
30 March 2009
Storm Financial will be wound down after the Federal Court in Brisbane ordered the investment company be placed into liquidation...
Life industry tackles underinsurance
30 March 2009
As reported in this week’s LOCAL news section, the life insurance industry is tackling underinsurance head-on with an industry-funded awareness campaign that aims to boost life cover take-up rates...