Asteron Life continues to deliver solid underlying profit and growth despite economic headwinds

8 August 2022

Please note, the Best Doctors service is now known as Asteron Life Connected Care. For more information, check out the latest media release here.

Asteron Life, Suncorp’s New Zealand life insurance business, demonstrated its strength by delivering an underlying profit after tax of $38 million driven by in-force premium growth of 4% and strong retention rates. Economic headwinds reduced reported profit after tax to $15 million, down $23 million on the prior corresponding period, but a still highly credible result given the adverse impacts of the rising interest rate environment.

New business was $18 million, consistent with the prior period and reflecting similar disruptions to the business environment this year. Asteron maintained its planned margins in line with its in-force premium growth, and in addition delivered positive net experience profits for the second year running.

Executive General Manager Life Grant Willis says it was a challenging year for customers, advisers and the Asteron team, but the net growth and underlying performance result is pleasing, and the business is strong, profitable and well set up to support customers.

“Due to a combination of Covid-19 restrictions and business disruptions from ongoing regulatory and licensing changes, our advisers experienced a challenging environment but continually adapted to assist customers while in lockdown and when other restrictions were in place.

“The good news for our customers is that during the year we were able to pass back the benefits of our ongoing underwriting and claims performance through targeted price reductions, and our claims acceptance rates continue to remain high at 95%. This reflects the quality of our products and the certainty provided to our customers that Asteron will be there for them when they need to access their insurance benefits during what is often the most traumatic time of their lives or their families.

“Further, the partnership with Best Doctors continues to provide customers with virtual medical support through its mental health navigation tool and options to obtain second opinions on health issues by offshore specialists. This has provided excellent value to our customers throughout the pandemic”, he says.

The Asteron team’s ongoing support for customers, including those experiencing vulnerability, is also reflected in them winning the ANZIIF Life Company of the Year award, and achieving employee engagement and NPS results in the top 25% of financial services companies.

Suncorp New Zealand CEO Jimmy Higgins says a key focus for Asteron Life now is to continue to digitally transform the business and enhance customer and adviser experiences whilst maintaining sustainable growth, customer support, and claims performance.

“The current environment presents challenging headwinds from economic factors and New Zealand health system constraints, together with emerging risks around potential impacts of long Covid and regulatory disruption from the proposed New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme. However, the business is monitoring the risks and is well placed to meet these challenges”.

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