Suite of products aimed at covering all ages and stages of life; focus on individual pricing
Suite of products aimed at covering all ages and stages of life; focus on individual pricing
Nedgroup Life, the life insurance arm of the Nedbank Group, has re-entered the fully underwritten life market through the launch of a comprehensive suite of integrated products that fall under the banner of 360Life.
Designed as a holistic approach to life insurance, 360Life has been researched and developed for more than a year and focuses on providing a flexible set of offerings – including death, disability, critical illness and income protection cover - that are relevant for all the different ages and stages of life. It also includes an innovative wellness programme called become, which enables policyholders to earn premium discounts, of up to 20% of the premium amount, for following a range of healthy pursuits.
The launch of 360Life comes about just over one year after Nedbank acquired Old Mutual’s 50% stake in Nedgroup Life, paving the way for re-entry into fully underwritten life insurance services. In its joint venture with Old Mutual, Nedgroup Life had previously focused on credit life, mainly for mortgage bond holders, as well as simple risk and savings solutions to Nedbank retail clients.
“There was a gap in the Nedbank Group’s range of financial services offerings and we believe that 360Life will fill this gap and make us a strong competitor in the fully underwritten life insurance market,” said Lance Blumeris, Chief Operating Officer of Nedgroup Life.
“By coming into the market now, we have been able to design and offer state-of-the-art products based on a cutting edge technological platform.”
According to Blumeris, the life insurance market has changed considerably in the past few years with consumers needing flexible cover that adapts to changing lifestyles and enables benefits to be amended or added throughout one’s lifespan.
“We did a lot of listening to the market when we designed 360Life and believe that we have come up with life insurance solutions that can grow with people as their lives and needs change. Our solutions are adaptable and responsive to every angle of a person’s life.”
“360Life will adopt an individual pricing model and price accurately for risk, based on assessing policyholders’ lifestyles holistically. Improvements in health and income will result in cash-back being paid out annually into a become health wallet.”
Importantly, the launch of 360Life will enable Nedbank to compete against other major life insurers such as Liberty, Old Mutual, Sanlam and Momentum, and provide another option for financial planners and individuals to consider.
A core background element driving 360Life is an automated underwriting engine and “straight through processing” which sharply reduces the time between signing up new business and getting it on to the books. This is seen as increasing efficiencies and service levels for the insurer, financial planners and insured parties.
become wellness programme targets mind, body, wealth, relationships and environment
Significantly, 360Life has also been designed in such a way that continuous pricing can be undertaken, providing a constant flow of information that influences underwriting over time.
Enabling this is become, a highly innovative and FREE wellness programme which offers cash back to policyholders for pursuing healthy behaviour. become is an integral part of the overall 360Life offering and all programme partners are wellness orientated.
become differentiates itself from other wellness and loyalty programmes by being structured around five core elements – mind, body, wealth, relationships and environment.
“The aim of this programme is to take a much broader and holistic look at well-being than just the physical aspect. While the physical aspect is important, there is much more to wellness than merely the body,” said Shaun Dippnall, Head of Strategy at Nedbank Insurance.
360Life policyholders will be able to earn become points through:
Points or premium discounts earned through healthy behaviour are paid into a health wallet with access to an annual cash redemption facility.
“The become programme ties in with Nedbank’s overall goal of promoting sustainable and environmentally responsible practices in all aspects of business and individual life,” said Dippnall.
Nedgroup Life’s 360Life insurance solution and become wellness programme has been available through the nationwide network of Nedbank Financial Planners from Monday, 1 November 2010.
Nedbank ……. Make things happen
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