Asteron Life employee insurance manager leading sustained growth

15 December 2023

Well known industry insurance professional, Jon Lloyd, has taken the lead of Asteron Life’s employee insurance team as the segment continues to deliver above forecast opportunity and growth.

The life insurer has seen more than 150% growth in its employee insurance schemes over a five-year period, with much of this through targeting brand new business. 

Lloyd who recently took on the employee insurance management role, from his role in business development, says more than 80% of Asteron Life’s employee insurance schemes signed over the past year are brand new schemes - employers that previously didn’t offer cover for employees - or additions to existing schemes. This is part of the whole sector-wide growth that has been witnessed over the past couple of years.

Lloyd says the feedback received from advisers and clients on the insurers new and existing cover options is extremely positive.

“Our employee insurance team is very focused on driving brand new business benefits for employers. Our products are seen as highly competitive from a value delivery and sustainability perspective, and we’re committed to working with brokers and advisers in long term partnerships to ensure clients are aware of the value of Asteron Life’s employee insurance offerings.”

Jon Lloyd

He says with the current high inflation and pressure on employers to increase wages in line with this, providing employee benefits such as Group insurance can help make employee attraction and retention efforts easier. In addition, providing Group insurance cover for employees through tougher times, strongly demonstrates that an employer also cares more holistically about the health and wellbeing of their people.  

“Asteron Life’s introduction of Kids Cover into the employee insurance offer, has really resonated with customers because of the importance of children’s wellbeing in people’s lives. When a child has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition or needs major surgery, a caregiver wants to be able to be help focus on their care. ”

Access to Asteron Life Connected Care, available at no extra cost with Income Protection, is another feature that promotes holistic care for employers to be able to offer to their staff members and those members’ partner or spouse, children, parents and parents-in-laws. The add-on provides access to expert medical, mental health and wellbeing advice from the comfort of their own home.

Lloyd says these types of additional features also provide good talking points for employers to have fuller conversations and encourage employees to better engage in and understand the value of the income protection and other core benefits they may already have access to.

Asteron Life’s suite of product enhancements also included the replacement of the existing Specific Injury Benefit and the Personal Accident & Major Burns Benefit with a new standalone Specific Injury Support Benefit. There are also three new Trauma diagnoses now covered, Aneurysm, Diabetes and Terminal Illness, as well as an upgrade of the Trauma to align with Asteron’s Personal Trauma offering.

“Each of these enhancements was developed with our customers’ needs and wants in mind and through collaboration with advisers to ensure we’re continually strengthening our product offerings to ensure they’re fit for purpose.”

For more information, please contact Kimberley.Cameron@suncorp.co.nz

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