MLC Life Insurance has stepped up its campaign to win more group insurance business with the launch of a new digital platform for superannuation fund clients.
The new LifeView platform is designed to offer a “comprehensive and integrated experience” for superannuation fund trustees, their administrators and members.
“Working with super fund clients is all about building a partnership to help them better engage with their members,” MLC Life chief customer officer of group insurance Suzanne Smith. “And getting members to engage with their super is hard enough, let alone with their insurance cover.”
Smith said she believed the rollout of the LifeView platform in 2017 would make MLC Life a “really serious player” in the group insurance sector, which collects roughly $8 billion a year in premiums. MLC Life is the fourth-largest life insurance provider in Australia, but ranks only sixth in the group insurance sector.
“Our goal is to become Australia’s leading and most trusted life insurer, and we want to play a bigger role in the group insurance market. To do that, we need to focus on how we can transform the way funds and members engage with life insurance, and to do so in a transparent way,” she said.
MLC Life’s biggest group insurance client is the National Australia Bank-owned $70 billion MLC Super. Other group insurance clients include the $6 billion Brisbane-based industry fund Energy Super and $7.3 billion corporate fund Qantas Super.
The LifeView platform will allow trustees and administrators to access real-time data and analysis of their funds’ claims experience. Members will also be able to use the platform to track the progress of their claims without needing to call their fund or insurer.
LifeView is part of a $400 million “technology transformation” project launched at MLC Life since Japan’s Nippon Life took control of the business, buying an 80 per cent stake from National Australia Bank for $2.4 billion, in late 2016.
MLC Life recently announced partnerships with Pacific Life Re to offer automated underwriting solutions for customers using the UnderwriteMe program. Based on testing to date, it is expected to double straight-through acceptance rates, where members are insured without the need for manual underwriting.
The firm is committed to “leapfrogging other life insurance providers in the areas of digital experience and data analytics,” MLC Life Insurance head of digital Tim Roso said. “We believe LifeView will be a game-changer for us to help bolster our offering in group insurance as we look to provide super funds with more value and better streamlined processes”.
