Why we’re supporting customers experiencing vulnerability

At Asteron Life, we’re here supporting you for life – and when we say that, we mean it.

That’s why, in addition to our existing policy protections, we want to support our customers when they’re experiencing vulnerability.

Our Customers Experiencing Vulnerability initiative has been developed with the guidance of trusted community groups, like Lifeline Aotearoa, Age Concern New Zealand and Shine, to empower our teams to go the extra mile for Kiwis in their time of greatest need.

Bringing a deeper understanding of customer vulnerability into our business

The Asteron Life team are passionate about supporting customers experiencing vulnerability and we’re supporting them with a unique training initiative. Developed in consultation with Lifeline Aotearoa, our entire workforce has completed this upskilling programme. It means they can be confident in better identifying and supporting customers who are experiencing vulnerability.

Learn more about our commitment to supporting customers experiencing vulnerability

One of our team shares their experiences

Aschunan (or Ash) Sivakumar is one of the team at Asteron Life. As you’ll see from our photo, his friendly nature reflects a genuine commitment to helping our customers. Ash says the deeper understanding and training he now has in customer vulnerability makes his work at Asteron Life feel personal to him.

“It demonstrates that we genuinely care for our customers’ particular situations and, where we can, we can go that step further to help – going above and beyond what people would normally expect of an insurance company.”

“The sooner we can identify the cues when speaking to a customer that may be experiencing vulnerability, the earlier we will try to find any help that may be available to them. This is particularly important with financial vulnerability so that our customers may not have to make a choice between keeping their insurance cover in place or having to use that money for day-to-day essentials.”

How a little support can really matter

While each situation is unique, Ash explains a recent example of how supporting a customer experiencing vulnerability can make a meaningful difference.

“A customer I was communicating with recently was having trouble meeting her premium payments and I was able to work with her on a payment solution. While I was talking to her, she mentioned she was working several jobs and still struggling to provide her family with food. After talking to my manager, to help her in the short term, we were able to send out a food package voucher in addition to encouraging her to make contact with two of our community partners MoneyTalks and Good Shepherd, so she could benefit from using their advice and services. She was amazed and very grateful for what we did.”

Are you experiencing vulnerability?

If you’re an Asteron Life customer experiencing vulnerability, please let us know and we will do our best to support you. Click here to contact us.