Life policy questions revealed by Hayne RC

Round six of the royal commission finished on 21 September after two weeks of public hearings focussed on insurance.

Life insurance operators, including AMP, ClearView, CommInsure, Freedom Insurance, REST and TAL, presented evidence at the commission. 

As reported by sister publication InvestorDaily, the commission heard how AMP knew it was charging deceased customers, ClearView’s boiler room tactics, CBA’s potential breach of contract law and TAL’s falling short of community standards.

In the newly released policy questions, the royal commission poses questions around what should be universal prescriptions for group life policies in MySuper members amongst others.

The commission also poses if the regulation is enough regarding life insurance and general insurance and if greater penalties should be introduced.

“What is the purpose of infringement notices? Would that purpose be better achieved by increasing the applicable number of penalty units in section 12GXC of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth)? Should there be infringement notices of tiered severity?”

ASIC and APRA’s roles are also brought into question, with the commission posing the question around what more they could do.

“Should ASIC and APRA do more to ensure that financial services entities have adequate compliance systems? What should they do?”

It also asks if any of the recommendations in the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce Report should be supplemented or modified.

TAL issued a statement saying that they would review the questions and submit them to the Royal Commission. 

"TAL will review the policy questions posed and develop a detailed submission in response, setting out our views on the areas under discussion.  That submission will be available on the Commission’s website in due course. We will not be making any comment on the policy questions in advance of that."

The Hayne royal commission is expected to be released on Friday with reports saying it will be tabled in the Federal Parliament after the Governor-General receives the report.

Eliot Hastie

Eliot Hastie is a journalist at Momentum Media, writing primarily for its wealth and financial services platforms. 

Eliot joined the team in 2018 having previously written on Real Estate Business with Momentum Media as well.

Eliot graduated from the University of Westminster, UK with a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism).

You can email him on: [email protected]