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Category Life Insurance

Discovery unveils consumer-friendly life assurance portfolio

05 June 2008 Discovery Life and Invest

Discovery Life today unveiled enhancements to its risk product portfolio that offer policyholders greater certainty of cover in the event of severe illness or disability.

“The impact of the structural changes we’ve introduced and the added flexibility within the enhanced Discovery LIFE PLAN delivers the most efficient and comprehensive protection available,’’ says Herschel Mayers (pictured right), Chief Executive, Discovery Life and Invest.

According to Mayers, meeting consumers’ needs is the central driving force behind the innovations introduced today.

“We scrutinised our current product portfolio taking into account some of the concerns consumers currently face. It led us to focus on greater affordability and the long-term financial impact of a severe illness or disability on our policyholders. We are confident that we have created more efficient, more affordable and more certain benefits,’’ Mayers said.

The enhanced Discovery LIFE PLAN aims to offer policyholders the most cost-effective risk cover and benefits that are relevant to their circumstances at the time of payout.

“Through our integration model, which draws together the offerings of Discovery Life, Discovery Health and Discovery Vitality, we have over the years been able to drive down the cost of risk cover by up to 32%, enhancing affordability and creating significant value for policyholders,’’ Mayers says.

The integration model engages consumers in managing their health through the Vitality wellness programme, which lowers their risks and rewards them with premium savings.

Discovery Life has found that the model has had a positive impact on consumer behaviour. Policyholders are buying more cover as a result of the increased affordability rather than simply pocketing the savings, while the value they derive from the Vitality programme has led to higher levels of persistency.

The Cover Integrator builds on these assets to create even greater value for clients. It offers policyholders who are also Vitality members the ability to increase their Life Fund at an approximate premium saving of 50% on the increased cover. The level of integrated cover may fluctuate on an annual basis depending on the policyholder’s level of engagement in Vitality.

Discovery Life has also developed measures through clinical research to assess the long-term impact of a severe illness or disability.

This enables a policyholder to set their cover to better reflect the lifestyle impact of a severe illness. Discovery’s LifeTime Capital Disability Benefit and LifeTime Severe Illness Benefit use objective medical criteria to assess the impact a disability or illness has on a policyholder’s long-term finances. Factors considered are the duration of the condition’s effects, medical treatment protocols and the policyholder’s expected future financial obligations.

To date, benefit payouts have only taken account of the short-term clinical impact of the illness or disability, leaving policyholders exposed to the longer term financial implications.

With the LifeTime Impact Benefits, Mayers says benefit payouts are now matched to the long-term impact of disability or severe illness, giving policyholders greater protection.

The Dynamic Spend Protector, an add-on to the Capital Disability Benefit, addresses the risk that a policyholder’s living expenses could be higher than expected, due to inflation as an example.

The DiscoveryCard provides the mechanism for protecting policyholders against increases in living expenses. Card-holders already receive a percentage of their actual spend within the DiscoveryCard network of retail partner stores back at the end of the month, dependent on their Vitality status.

With the Dynamic Spend Protector, should the policyholder become disabled, the cash back percentage will be significantly enhanced, allowing policyholders to benefit from significant savings – as high as 50% in some instances, depending on the severity of the disability and the policyholder’s Vitality status.

“All of these innovations have been introduced in the interest of consumer welfare and protection. Discovery Life is bringing a new level of sophistication to the market that offers our policyholders effective, personalised products to meet their lifestyle needs, in balance with their own circumstances,’’ Mayers concludes.

* Discovery won the 2008 FIA award for best long-term life assurer of the year in May for the second second year running

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