The care factor

I am a 30 year risk specialist. With respect, this article is repeating the old shibboleth that because a risk policy is " old" it is , ipso facto, not "adequate " It ain't necessarily so. Take IP - in 1988 it was indeed bad - non-coterminous benefit periods, injury definitions designed never to pay for a crook "tradie's back", exclusions for injury involving a "material breach of law" and "plague limitations" on No 4 Statutory Funds. It started to improve in the 90's, and by the mid 2000s, was much improved under the influence of small innovative insurers, all since subsumed into larger insurers. Then insurers discovered they had not priced for claims under the improvements, so little delightful "improvements" such as Capability Clauses and Criminality Clauses were introduced.

Watch out, we are heading backwards, and once all the risk specialists depart under the glare of FASEA & LIF, the insurers will have a picnic with part -time risk advisers.

Trauma & Own Occupation TPD have improved, but if you want some fun, compare stroke definitions today. Severity still abounds in some stroke definition cases

Finally the best value an adviser can provide is at claim. Yet I am still alarmed at the number of holistic advisers who refer the potential claimant direct to the insurer and do not get involved. That is bad business practice, BUT it might also now be a breach of FASEA rules

I do agree a competent adviser review should pick issues with low ( or high ) sum insureds, incorrect beneficiaries etc but please read, and understand, the risk policy terms and conditions

Caring for my clients is and has always been my number one priority (as my business ethos prior to joining this industry and while I'm still a part of it is "look after your clients and the rest takes care of itself"). Sadly, my ability to now do that like I used to has been systematically eroded the last 3-4 years by ASIC's hidden agendas, LIF's constraints and diminishing adviser remuneration, over the top Best Interest Duty compliance obligations and the deceitful, conflicted ambitions of FASEA.

So with all due respect Tony, I'd love to care more for my clients but the regime advisers are currently dealing with makes it near impossible to do that now. And it just infuriates me.