Archived media releases

Asteron first to market with $3 million Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) cover

1 February 2007
Asteron has today announced an Australian-first - a maximum sum insured for a single TPD payment of $3 million.

The $3 million TPD limit is an increase from $2.5 million and is the latest in a string of innovative life insurance features released to the market first by Asteron over the years.

Asteron’s Head of Product and Marketing, Jane Power, said, “Our ongoing product enhancements, such as the increased TPD limit, are driven by a customer-centric business model, whereby we identify the changing needs of our clients and then build and enhance our offer in response to these needs.

“Research from the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) shows that Australians in their mid to late 30s are at an age where their debt-to-income ratio is at its highest¹, yet a subset of this group (age 31-35) also contains the people most at risk of being underinsured². When there are mortgages to pay and dependent children still at home, the main income earner in the household simply can not afford to become permanently disabled.”

Being a lump sum payment, TPD insurance can extinguish this household debt and provide for claimants who are no longer able to work and who may incur unexpected expenses, such as necessary modifications to their home, or medical costs not covered by their private health insurance.

The level of TPD cover required by clients is typically determined after an adviser-led fact find, which involves assessing debt and dependant levels. But until now, this has been capped at $2.5 million.

“As people are taking on greater levels of debt and their asset base is growing, there is an obligation to be able to provide adequate insurance cover for them”, said Asteron’s Senior Life Product Manager, David Wright.

“If a needs analysis performed by the client’s financial adviser shows a requirement for more than $2.5 million, customers can now get that level of cover at Asteron.”

“This increase impacts both the TPD option under Term Life, as well as Stand Alone TPD. It is available now for Asteron’s ‘own’, ‘any’ and ‘modified’ (under Term Life) definitions”, he added.

1 IFSA ‘Fast facts: a nation exposed!’ August 2005
2 IFSA ‘Investigating the issue of underinsurance’ July 2005