The growing desire from clients to have personalised insurance policies creates a significant opportunity for the industry to grow and prosper. By catering for individual needs, the industry is able to enhance product offerings and assess the type of cover required for each target market.
Taking this into consideration, it is important to note whether clients are employed or self-employed in order to determine the best benefits suitable for their needs.
Catering for personalised needs
Your client can fall ill, suffer an injury or, at worst, become permanently incapacitated at any given time. Therefore, as an adviser you play an important role in ensuring that your client is able to cover his or her day-to-day expenses whilst unable to work.
If your clients are young professional graduates who are employed or self-employed, they can now take advantage of PPS’s Sickness and Permanent Incapacity (SPPI) Benefit.
Extra package flexibility
The Benefit provides your clients with the extra flexibility to create their own distinct risk insurance packages to choose more affordable premiums and includes:
• Retirement options: your clients can choose to have benefits until the age of 60, 65 or 70, depending on how long they plan to stay in the working environment;
• Differentiated options: your clients can also choose either level or age-rated premium patterns both differentiated by gender and smoking status;
• Your client’s benefit offers a seven-day waiting period, which pays from day one for sicknesses lasting seven consecutive days or longer;
• In addition to the seven-day waiting period, clients can now benefit from a 30-day waiting period which pays from day 31 for sicknesses lasting more than 30 days.
• Add-ons: your clients have the option of adding the Permanent Incapacity Booster (previously known as Occupation Specific Rider Benefit or OSRB) which is an optional benefit that increases the payment to a non-reviewable 100% once a permanent incapacity award is given. The benefit will be paid out even if the member continues working and will not be aggregated or offset against any other income earned or benefits received;
• Additional benefits: your clients aregiven the added benefitsof the Hospital and the Family Hospital options.The Hospital benefit provides the option of extra cover in the form of a benefit, equal and in addition to the client’s sickness benefit should he or she be hospitalised for four days or more. The Family Hospital Benefit is designed to give a client the financial freedom to take time off when his or her loved ones need him or her most, by paying an income benefit while his or her spouse or children are in hospital for 4 or more consecutive days;
• International cover: At no additional cost, your client is also covered for risky activities and occupations including motor racing, skydiving and mine engineering. In addition, the client is also covered if they move abroad, take up temporary work or go on holiday;
• Your client will not need to prove loss of income in order to claim;
• The benefit pays your client regardless of any other policies or insurance cover he or she may have; and
• The younger your client is, the lower his or her premiums will be.
Constant innovation is key
Instead of taking the one size fits all approach, young adults are looking for more flexibility and solutions that they can tailor to their specific needs. PPS used the opportunity to offer something more flexible and more affordable in a target market that is critical to the bigger insurance pool.
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