TelstraSuper cuts income protection premiums

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

22 June 2023

TelstraSuper has emerged as the latest superannuation fund to deliver insurance premium reductions to its members.

The fund announced this week that members with Income Protection insurance will see decreases in their premiums of between 11.5% and 30% from 1 July.

It said the decrease followed the Fund’s review of insurance pricing and an adjustment of premium rates to reflect a range of favourable factors, including improved historical claims experience among TelstraSuper members, particularly older female members.

Commenting on the move, TelstraSuper head of insurance and claims, Fiona LaGreca said the reduction was a great outcome for members taking out income protection insurance through their superannuation.

She said the fund had worked closely with insurer, MLC Life Insurance, to provide affordable insurance premiums so that members could put more money towards their retirement whilst also benefitting from great levels of cover for when they might need it most.”

LaGreca said that, importantly, TelstraSuper had also been able to maintain its competitive rates on default Death and Total & Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance cover negotiated with MLC Life Insurance in 2020.

“When we appointed MLC Life Insurance as our insurer on 1 July 2020, we were able to negotiate an 8% decrease in default Death and TPD rates against a backdrop of increasing insurance costs, so we are thrilled to be maintaining these competitive rates for another 3 years, to 30 June 2026 (except in very limited circumstances^#),” LaGreca said.