Partners Life Product Changes and Benefit improvements 

Special Events Increase benefit limits increased from 75% to 100% for aggregated sum insured and new special event added

Counselling Benefit increased “use by” time to 12 months after claim

Financial and Legal Advice Benefit increased “use by” time to 12 months after claim and the maximum benefit increased to $3,000

Special Events Increase deal on offer to customers who missed policy anniversaries. Customers will have a have an additional 12 months added to their 60-day time limit that applies to their immediate past anniversary

Dependent Child Funeral Support Benefit updated to include unborn child age moving to 20 weeks or weighing more than 400 grams

Bed Confinement Benefit added under the daily care of a registered nurse as an alternative requirement

Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia, Aplastic Anaemia, HIV (medical acquired), Multiple Sclerosis, Major Organ Transplant, Diabetes definitions changed in Trauma Cover

Non-surgical Benefit (Private Hospital and Serious Illness Benefits) annual limit increased from $300,000 to $500,000

New Public Treatment Top-Up Benefit means Partners Life will pay for some treatments after customer has covered treatment in public system.  

$5,000 maximum limit removed for Second Opinion Benefit (Private Medical Cover)

New cover for mental health consultations has a maximum of $2,500 under Surgical and Non-surgical Benefits (Private Hospital and Serious Illness Benefits)

Optional Specialists and Test now includes Podiatrist as a specialist for consultations

Cancer definition simplified in Excess Waiver Benefit.

Income and Expenses Cover

Income and Expenses Cover is designed to include sustainability features, remove over-insurance and moral hazard opportunity, and provide customer support

Benefit is the greater of pre-disability income less offset x 75% of life assured’s share of pre-disability monthly domestic expenses

The cover term for Income Cover and Expenses Cover is to age 65 with payments term options of 2 years, 5 years and to age 65

Pre-disability income is the same as Income Cover

Disabled for occupation classes 1-4 includes 10 hours or 75% of activities but it moves from own to reasonable occupation after 12 months

Customers will be considered to be in occupation class 5 if they have been unemployed, on unpaid leave, working less than 25 a week, incarcerated in a penal institution, or legally barred 12 months before disability

Income Cover offsets apply to Income Cover and Expenses Cover

Income and Expenses Cover has a payment term restriction that applies for medically unevidenced claims. These are not a fixed restriction for mental health claims

Unevidenced claims in the Income and Expenses Cover are paid for up to 12 months

Fixed payment terms reset for new disability for the Income and Expenses Cover, although customers must be back to full time work for more than 12 months to reset.

Disability within 12 months of claim for any reason is a recurrent disability

Income and Expenses Cover ancillary benefits include Bed Confinement Benefit, Return to Work Benefit, Increasing Income Benefit, Recovery Support Benefit (reduced to 6x SI), and Vocational Retraining and Rehabilitation Benefit (reduced to 3x SI or max $10,000)

Income and Expenses Cover ancillary benefits don’t include Lump sum TPD, Critical Illness Benefit, Specific Injury Benefit, Child Care Assistance Benefit, Death Benefit, and Return to Home Benefit

YRT option only applies.

Moderate Trauma Cover

Partners Life desires to get back to the principle of indemnification meaning that customers don’t need claims paid unless they have financial losses, and they don’t need to pay premiums that doesn’t indemnify against loss

Moderate Trauma Cover allows price efficiency, cutting out claims with immaterial financial consequences. This enables customers to afford higher sums insured.

Moderate Trauma Cover will mean future prices will be sustainable and will allow advisers to fine tune severity based on trauma solutions

Moderate Trauma Cover will have more defined conditions for Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia, Aplastic Anaemia, Angioplasty, Blindness, Cardiomyopathy, Chromic Kidney Failure, Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Attack, Intensive Care, Loss of Cognitive Function, Motor Neurone Disease and Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, Stroke.

Designed to be 20% cheaper than Trauma Cover (TC), price differential expected to grow

Designed to be a mid-range trauma cover (between TC and Serious Trauma Cover)

No built-in TPD, customers that need TDP will need to take TPD Cover.

Moderate Trauma Cover can be combined with TC and STC to create a severity-based trauma option.