Asteron Life announces changes to trauma expiry ages

28 September 2021

Asteron Life has announced changes to expiry ages for Trauma Recovery Cover, as part of a suite of product enhancements it has released this week. 

For its standalone and accelerated benefits, the expiry age is lifting from 70 to 85. Some other benefits including its Continuous Trauma and Trauma Reinstatement benefit will lift to age 75. 

Robyn Bartlett, Product Manager at Asteron Life, said that flexibility and usability have been the core values that have driven the range of enhancements the company is releasing. 

“We have heard from advisers that they value being able to give their customers choices when it comes to building a package of insurance cover to suit them,” say Bartlett.  

“Increasing the expiry ages of our trauma recovery packages gives advisers and customers increased flexibility to put together insurance that will give them peace of mind in their unique circumstances.” 

The maximum entry age for Asteron Life trauma cover will also be extended to age 70. 

Bartlett said that providing a valuable trauma cover that would create great outcomes for customers was a big focus for the insurer. 

“Trauma cover is one of the most valuable products for our customers at claim time,” she says.  

“As well as updating the entry and expiry ages, we have also made changes to the definitions for some conditions, including the updated cerebral aneurysm definition being a direct result of compelling customer feedback.” 

In 2018, Asteron Life released its Continuous Trauma benefit, which remains the only benefit of its kind in the market in New Zealand. Continuous Trauma is an optional benefit which gives customers trauma cover that they can claim on up to three times for unrelated events, even immediately after they have made a claim.  

“With things like Continuous Trauma and our latest enhancements, we’re working to create a robust trauma offering that will give customers peace of mind over the long term, and improve the ability of customers to make a claim when they need to.” 

The changes to the expiry age take effect this week, and existing trauma policyholders’ expiry ages will be automatically extended. 

As well as changes to its trauma product, Asteron Life has released a number of other product enhancements including: 

• Adding premium holiday benefit and premium and cover suspension to business insurance policies 
• Adding a new lump sum specific injury benefit 
• Making changes to its Major Trauma ratios 
• Changing the definitions for seven conditions in its trauma policies for new and existing customers back to 2004 
• Updating policy wordings for various benefits including grief support and financial planning 

These and a suite of other changes are live in Asteron Life’s system this week.