Asteron Life is in the business of protecting what matters the most

As the country continues to recover from the impacts of Covid-19 and the recent weather events, Asteron Life remains focused on supporting New Zealanders with long term financial security - a commitment demonstrated through every stage of our customer’s journey through life. 

As Asteron Life’s Executive Manager Claims and Customer Solutions, I’m extremely privileged to work with a passionate team of claims professionals driven by a philosophy, approach and mindset that puts our customers at the centre of everything we do. 

Our claims philosophy centres around ensuring every claim is dealt with in a professional, empathetic, diligent and fair way. In fact, we aim to set a benchmark in service excellence, integrity and results when it comes to claims. That means doing the right thing for our customers at all times. Afterall, when a claim is made, that’s when the real value of cover is seen, and it’s great to know that Asteron Life is in the business of protecting what matters the most.   

In 2022 Asteron Life had an overall claims acceptance rate of 97% across both its advisory business and Direct channel.  The majority of these claims were for Life cover where we paid $94.5 million. In the same period Asteron Life also paid $23.7 million in Income Protection and Monthly Income cover and an additional $22.4 million in Trauma payments which cover a defined range of serious medical events.  

These numbers are important. They reflect the work all our teams do to make sure we’re doing what’s right at all stages – from that first contact through to a claim being made. Every interaction we have plays a part in ensuring we can be there for customers when they need it. Such outcomes would not have been possible without the continued support from our advisers and their expertise in helping New Zealanders become financially secure. 

During the recent North Island weather events Asteron Life’s built-in premium relief options* helped customers who were struggling financially to take a premium ‘holiday’ for up to six months or temporarily suspend premiums and cover for up to 12 months. This type of flexibility, especially in the current financial environment, can make all the difference in ensuring customers can keep their cover so that when they need us in future, we’re still right there to support them and their loved ones. 

John Lennon once famously sang, ‘Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans’ and while that may be very true, I love that each day our Asteron Life team come to work; we play our part in helping life run as smoothly as possible for our customers.  

*Eligible policies

With the support of our reinsurers, Asteron Life have been able to permanently add the premium holiday benefit to our Business Insurance and Smart Business lump sum covers, while premium and cover suspension benefits have been added to Business Insurance, Key Person and Business Expenses disability covers.   

These benefits are available to eligible customers only. Stand down periods may apply as well as restrictions to the number of times these benefits can be accessed (policy/product dependent).   

The full range of eligible policies is: