Claimant payouts on the rise

In its report, 2015 Life Industry Claims Paid Statistics, the daily amount paid to claimants, their families and businesses, exceeded $25 million for the first time, paid to a record 89,291 claimants.

The report also named the top three types of claims across the four key life insurance product types: death, total and permanent disability (TPD), trauma, and income protection.

Cancer was the leading cause for claims on death and trauma policies, while musculoskeletal injuries were the leading cause for claims on TPD and income protection policies.

The Risk Store managing director Pete Wincott said that, despite recent negative media coverage relating to alleged poor claims practices, "the industry on the whole employs very good people who do a very good job of paying claims".

However, Mr Wincott also added that compiling the data was a very difficult and time-consuming exercise, citing lack of support from some senior managers, which has impeded data collection.

"We expected it would have been a priority to get these numbers out to the community sooner and were hoping to go to publication much sooner," he said.

"As an industry, we should and can act faster."

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].