Asia is our lifeline, says insurer
ONE of the nation’s biggest life insurers, TAL, is working with its Japanese parent company to roll out its high-tech distribution model in Asia for the first time. “We would have the most advanced life-insurance market and model of anything in Asia. They have very traditional models — field forces of agents running around selling things to people.”

The future of life insurance
In the wake of the Financial Services Council’s (FSC’s) release of its Life Insurance Framework, Money Management recently joined with the Association of Financial Advisers to bring the industry’s leaders together and focus the debate on the future sustainability of the life insurance industry.

Tackling direct insurance head on
Participating in a life insurance panel discussion, Tim Ross, managing director, Ross Financial Group said that as online direct insurers are encroaching into the market, advisers must focus on fine tuning their value proposition in an effort to erase the competition.

Insurer capital reporting rules released
Apart from some fine tuning, the prudential regulator says the final reporting requirements under new capital rules for general and life insurers is complete.

Govt backs down on rushed legislation
THE government has been forced to back down on an attempt to push some of its mid-year budget measures through parliament after key crossbenchers complained about an abuse of process. Legislation to change the treatment of “lost” or inactive superannuation, bank accounts and life insurance was scheduled for debate on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after its introduction to parliament.