A raft of new regulations including the government’s so called stapling proposal is challenging the superannuation industry ahead of the code of conduct becoming enforceable for insurers on June 30, 2021.
Speaking on the topic Governance Roadmap: Members First and New Provisions, Equity Trustees head of insurance Princes Navarro says the stapling rules, brought in with the Federal Budget in October, added to a long list of rules challenging insurers to provide value.
“We’re grappling with the impact of super stapling and once the enforceable code provision comes through. There’s a lot of working coming through,’’ says Navarro who is a member of the code implementation committee.
The voluntary code of practice has established standards for the understanding, accountability and delivery of insurance benefits across the superannuation industry with the panel discussing developments in governance and the impacts this will have on insurance offerings within superannuation.
Natalie Binns, general manager insurance solutions the retail employees’ fund REST Super says the onus will be on trustees to provide value for members for their insurance for the whole of life, adding complexity to an industry coping with a raft of new regulations.
“Sustainability is a huge issue to think about the way insurance contracts are set,’’ Binns told the panel discussion at Investment Magazine’s Group Insurance Summit.
“I think for us, it’s around both looking at the immediate term and the longer term. Outcomes assessment and stapling (which is) the next big thing.
“If you keep that insurance for life and you’re not an engaged member the onus on the fund is that the insurance will provide value for the whole of their life.
Binns, who helped implement a new insurance model with the fund, says REST “thought deeply about what a casual employer cover looks like” and solved that problem.
However, new stapling provisions had added complexity to that cover.
“Whilst we’ve solved that problem, what about people moving into construction, a lawyer or an accountant. If your population and demographic change what do we need to do (to provide) cover that is meaningful that doesn’t have unintended consequences.
“We don’t want unintentional junk insurance. It must be sustainable, affordable and do what it needs to do at claim time which is help people who are injured.’’
Binns said the 11-month process to change REST’s insurance service model came before Protect Your Super and Putting Members Interests First legislation and will continue to “pivot” with constant change.
“We’ve got an inhouse co sourced, co located team with our insurer which helps from a governance perspective so that end-to-end value chain we can see what happens with the claims and underwriting journey,’’ Binns says.
“From start to finish we have looked at every aspect of the insurance offering. Princess touched on a point of a lot of regulation going on. PYS came in 6 months after we started our journey. TAL PMIF we’re going to deal with the fact that things will constantly change.
“We really had to pivot several times throughout this program of work to redesign the product.
“It’s not an easy task to govern an insurance contract but having done the work to really look at everything underwriting claims operations performance. Having your insurer understand what it’s like to be a trustee. We’re more lined up with the environments of the code.’’
Navrro says insurers and funds are navigating through PYS and PMIF legislation from productivity and royal commissions and particular attention is being paid to ASIC section 633 which is about addressing the unfair outcomes coming out of activities of daily living (ADL) and restrictive definitions such as ones like cognitive loss that’s affecting the economically vulnerable sections of the community.
“So one of the shortcomings of ADL and ADW (activities of daily working) is a mental illness. I know TAL (Australia) is addressing that by including an add on to ADL definitions because we all know we’re expecting a tsunami (of mental health claims) because of the pandemic,’’ she says.
