NGS Super wins 2019 Best Fund Insurance

Bernard O’Connor
NGS Super

The Chant West best insurance offering through a superannuation fund was again won by NGS Super, making it the winner in the past three out of five years.

The Fund provides Life and Terminal Illness, Total and Permanent Disability and Income Protection insurance for eligible members through TAL Life Limited (TAL).

The criteria used by Chant West (rating agency) considered the overall quality of its insurance products, taking into account the benefit design, the policy conditions and the member experience.

It is pleasing to be recognised nationally for the hard work and expertise of the insurance team in designing the award winning product which has benefited thousands of NGS Super members over the years.

NGS Super CEO, Laura Wright said: “We’re honoured to again be recognised as the super fund that delivers the best insurance, particularly against such a strong field. Our back-to-back win is a testament to the fact that we are offering insurance to our members that is considered the best in its class and importantly demonstrates the hard work and dedication of our staff in delivering added value to our members beyond the offering”.

The design is aimed at suiting members at various ages and places in their life cycle. The structure is trapezoidal with cover starting low for members in their 20s, then increasing in the mid-30s, with significant death and terminal illness cover for members in their 40s linked with a moderate TPD cover at this age supplemented by meaningful Income Protection cover (which may provide monthly disability benefits to supplement a lump sum TPD claim).

Levels of death cover start to decrease for members in their 50s and cut out completely at age 75.

So a 40 year old default member would have a sum insured for death cover of $550,000 and a TPD cover of $140,000 (all levels of cover and premiums are available in the Insurance Guide).

Significantly Income Protection cover has been increased to a five year benefit payment period for eligible members. It is also worth noting that extra options exist to increase cover (for example Income Protection cover to age 65) as well as higher levels of death and TPD cover. Members may apply for these options to further customise the cover they need and acceptance is generally based on the medical evidence provided to the insurer. NGS Super members are also able to fix their Death/TPD cover at a certain level with insurance premiums increasing annually.

It is also significant to note that the award winning design has removed cross-subsidisation. This means that no age cohort is paying extra to subsidise another age cohort. It is a user-based premium payment system.

So the purpose-built default cover targets the average needs of the mostly homogeneous membership which many larger funds are unable to do because their membership includes various industry categories.

TAL also focusses on rehabilitation and seeks to assist members return to work. The insurer identifies claimants who could potentially benefit from rehabilitation and pays for the professional services designed to assist the claimant return to work.

Another innovation which contributed to the win is the strong online capability of the insurer, TAL. Online and tele-claims are possible, making it easy for members to lodge a claim. Tele-claims use Green ID which means members do not have to sign anything to submit their claims, removing the former requirement of the dreaded forms.

It is pleasing to receive this industry recognition and even more pleasing to know that NGS Super members are benefiting from this award winning insurance product.

Important information: The information in this article is general information only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making a financial decision, please assess the appropriateness of the information to your individual circumstances, read the Produce Disclosure Statement for any product you may be thinking of acquiring and consider seeking personal advice. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Any opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS Super.