Will group life tenders be impacted by adverse publicity?

The adverse publicity confronting CommInsure has occurred at the same time as a number of corporate and industry superannuation funds are conducting a review process of their group insurance needs.

The managing director of actuarial consultancy, The Heron Partnership, Chris Butler said his firm was assisting a number of funds with the process around reviewing their group insurance mandates and he was aware of other tender processes in market at the current time.

Butler said he believed it was inevitable that the current adverse publicity would impact the thinking of some trustee directors when they looked at the short-lists drawn up for group insurance mandates.

However, a senior consultant to a number of superannuation fund boards said that it would be wrong to assume that all superannuation fund boards had had the same experience with particular insurers.

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"Most industry funds boards have claims committees which review the claims made under their group insurance arrangements, so it is not accurate to say that the insurer gets to accept or reject a member claim without undergoing question and scrutiny," he said.

Further, the consultant suggested that the state of the group insurance market over recent years had been such that superannuation funds which issued requests for tender on their group insurance mandates were not necessarily being overwhelmed with responses.

"Sometimes receiving two or three expressions of interest from insurers represents a good outcome," he said.

According to The Heron Partnership, AIA and TAL hold the largest market shares, with about 20 per cent each, with Hannover Life holding around 18 per cent and the remaining market being shared by CommInsure and MetLife, with between eight and 10 per cent each and then followed by MLC, AMP, and OnePath.