We know better than most the ripple effect that happens with a loss of life. On the families, friends and on communities. One area sometimes overlooked is when a parent with school-aged dependents passes away, the significant cost of maintaining school fees may mean children have to change schools as a result. The last thing a child needs after the loss of a parent is to also lose the support and community that school provides.

A partner approached us to help meet this challenge, so we started by undertaking research into the community on the need and where previous products had attempted to meet the demand. What we found was that previous products may not have been successful because they weren’t specifically designed for schools. They were slightly adjusted corporate products which were originally designed for employer groups and so lacked the simplicity, flexibility, and bespoke features that schools required to provide a cost-effective product.

So what did we develop? The product is designed to cover the school fees of a student whose parent or guardian dies or becomes terminally ill. It allows the school to receive a benefit in this instance. We call this, Integrity’s School Fees Cover.

Where previous products were largely adjusted ‘employer group’ products, this product is completely tailored to schools’ needs and only includes what they need. For example, doesn’t include TPD so this helps keep it simple and affordable.

The product has been specially designed so that we do not need to be notified of students coming and going from the school during term. Reconciliations and premium adjustments don’t have to be made to cater for this, we were able to fit this into the standard pricing – minimizing the school’s effort, reducing ‘painful paperwork’ and keeping administration costs to a minimum. 

The product has also been designed to specifically fit the fee structure of independent schools so it’s simple for schools to budget and account for.

In addition, and true to our ethos in designing products for ‘real life’, we undertook a great deal of work to make sure the product was suitable for all families including blended and ‘non-traditional’ – all of which was not well catered for within previous products. 

We’re thrilled to be able to bring another innovative product to market that is going to support people when they need it most.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recently updated its guidelines on how to reduce health risks brought on from drinking alcohol. At 6,000 deaths per year* from alcohol-attributed diseases, it’s a significant problem for Australia. But, as Professor Anne Kelso, NHMRC CEO notes, “We’re not telling Australians how much to drink” – and nor is Integrity. Like most public health initiatives, the guidelines are formulated using population-based statistics and are framed around reducing risks for an otherwise healthy average person.

When you are being underwritten for life insurance, the underwriter groups you with all the other lives that are similar to you. That means underwriting outcomes for alcohol consumption are also based on relative risk. Your individual health risk (long and short term) in respect to alcohol consumption needs to be considered taking all your own health factors into consideration.

But, just like the public health initiatives, we’re not making any moral judgement on your alcohol consumption. Nor do we increase your premiums if, for example, your consumption is more than what the government medical officer recommends. So when the guidelines are officially released in their entirety, premiums won’t be increased for drinkers…assuming what’s recommended in the guidelines is less (not more) alcohol. 

In addition to your relative risk compared to the group, the underwriter also considers your health history – what has happened – or not happened – as a result of your alcohol consumption habits and decides if this is generally the experience of the rest of the insured pool like you. That’s how underwriting risk appetite is formulated (what is the risk, does it apply equally to everyone, and if not, what extra premium should those outside the pool pay?)

The underwriter will take your disclosures about how much you drink, and provided that it’s within the underwriting guidelines, will usually just accept your cover.

So, cheers! And remember, everything carries risk, not just habits like drinking alcohol – there is plenty of advice as to what low risk can be and recommendations as to how you minimise health issues. Don’t forget the definition of what ‘risk’ means is interpreted differently for different purposes.

http://ndri.curtin.edu.au/news-events/ndri-news/media-release-alcohol-causes-nearly-6,000-australi

Volunteering is an Australian tradition. Helping out your mates and being there for each other, especially in times of crisis, is part of our culture and way of life. Like most Australians I have been following the bushfires and have witnessed incredible bravery and sacrifice from volunteers across the country. 

They respond because they care about their communities. My own personal experience was, a giant pine tree crashing into my home causing severe damage. This was the result of a freak storm just before Christmas, the first responders were my local State Emergency Services brigade. Calm, cheerful and reassuring, just great and capable people.

Volunteers come from all walks of life, you can be in a traditionally low-risk job by day and ‘after hours’ fighting fires, responding to storm damage, or helping flood affected communities. So how does this impact insurance, and are you covered if you undertake volunteering?

The role of the underwriter is to protect the pool of insured lives at his or her company. So, when deciding whether we should cover such risks, we consider:

• What is the exposure – how many volunteers of many persuasions (SES, RFS, CFA, Army reserve etc) are there in Australia compared to the population?
• And what about the time they spend in the more hazardous volunteer job compared to their usual job? This is a part time role – so we have butchers, bakers and candlestick makers in day jobs and volunteering is their ‘after hours’ role.
• What is the incidence? Of the many people who volunteer for a range of community service tasks – how many are unfortunately killed or injured in those roles compared to their ‘civilian’ job?
• And taking all that into consideration, would this incidence have a marked and abnormal effect on the pool of lives insured? That is, are we letting in lives who present a greatly increased risk compared to the average?

So, at Integrity, like a good many other life companies, we cover all our insured customers when they are acting as volunteers in any capacity. Whether you’re directly involved or providing support like food and resources to the front line you’re covered. If you’re not with Integrity Life, you should check that you are covered as there may be an exclusion. If any clients have any doubts and would like our reassurance, please direct them to this article, or we are happy to write to them and confirm their cover.

At the end of the day, our position is; with volunteering being so prevalent, it should be considered part of the experience of the pool of insureds and have no effect on the pool, so we insure our clients even when they’re volunteering.