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Formerly known as TOWER, TAL life Insurance can trace its origins back to 1869 when it was formed by the New Zealand Government and known as the Government Life Insurance Office. When it reached out to include Australia in its marketing base in 1990, it was known as Tower Life Insurance. It was demutualised in 1999 and after it acquired prominent life insurance companies on the market, such as Adriatic Life, Friends Provident and FAI life, it became solidly established as a major life insurance company in the Australian and New Zealand market.
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In 2006, the New Zealand and Australian components of the company formally parted ways with a de-merger and the Australian business of TAL was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) as a separate identity known as TAL Australia Group Limited. Following the de-merger TAL Life Insurance Australia went from strength to strength. This was further strengthened when it added PrefSure in 2006 and InsuranceLine in 2008 into the TAL Australia Group. Since 2006, the size of in-force premium business handled by TAL Life Insurance has grown five-fold.
TAL's Industry Recognition and Awards
TAL Australia has a growing list of awards for its innovative products and enjoys a 11 per cent market share, a third of the total Australian market in life insurance business alone. The major awards TAL Life Insurance have received in 2013 alone include:
- 2013 Winner Life Company of the Year - Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards
- 2013 Winner Best Income Protection, Accelerated Protection - Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards
- 2013 Winner Life Insurance Company of the Year - AB+F Insurance Awards
- 2013 Gold Winner Disability Income Product - Money Management/DEXX&R
- 2013 Silver Winner Risk Company of the Year - Money Management/DEXX&R
- 2013 Silver Winner Risk Company of the Year - Money Management
- 2013 Best Featured Income Protection Insurance - Money Magazine
- 2013 Cheapest Income Protection Insurance - Money Magazine
These awards show that TAL Life Insurance is succeeding at being the foremost specialist life insurer in the Australian market. They are achievements to be proud of and go to prove the company’s ability to deliver innovative and competitive life insurance, risk, superannuation and retirement solutions to the Australian public consistently.
TAL Life Insurance's objectives are to deliver the right products, service and information to all its customers to help them make informed decisions regarding the risk they carry as well as their superannuation needs. TAL Life Insurance efficiently delivers these services to clients mainly through its network of insurance consultants.
Key Features and Benefits of TAL Life Insurance Plans
TAL offers five types of life insurance products to its customers: Life Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, Total and Permanent Disability Insurance, Income Protection and Business Expense Insurance. TAL also lets you tailor your policy to suit your needs by either choosing a standalone policy, choosing one or more policies and then adding benefits and linking to other plans, or choosing to structure your life insurance through a superannuation plan.
With all TAL Accelerated Protection policies, you will have access to the following standards features:
- Inflation protection benefit: Your cover automatically increases every year in line with the Consumer Price Index.
- Premium freeze benefit: Your premiums stay the same by reducing your cover each year. This is available on stepped premium policies only and only after the policyholder’s 30th birthday.
- Guaranteed future insurability benefit: This means you’ll be able to increase your cover after significant life events (for example getting married or having a baby) without having to provide additional health information.
- Other benefits: These include a financial planning benefit, a grief counselling benefit and a child’s critical illness benefit.
TAL Accelerated Protection Life Insurance
Accelerated Protection Life Insurance will pay out a lump sum in the event of the policyholder’s death or the diagnosis of a terminal illness. The main purpose of this type of cover is to help provide for your family after you’ve gone, taking care of your family’s finances so they can focus on dealing with their loss.
TAL Accelerated Protection Life Insurance includes the following features and benefits:
- Death benefit: A lump sum payment of the nominated benefit amount if the policyholder dies.
- Terminal illness benefit. The nominated benefit amount can be paid out early if the policyholder is terminally ill and not expected to live longer than 12 months.
- Advanced payment benefit: 10% of the benefit amount (up to a maximum of $25,000) can be paid in advance to help your family deal with day-to-day finances.
- Repatriation benefit: The advanced payment limit is increased to $35,000 if the policyholder dies overseas.
TAL Life Insurance also offers the following optional benefits:
- Premium relief option: This option lets you waive your premiums if sickness or injury mean you are unable to work for at least three months.
- Business insurance option: This option lets you increase your insurance without providing additional health information after a valid business event, such as an increase in your share of business ownership or an increase in the level of a business loan for which you are a guarantor.
TAL Accelerated Protection Critical Illness Insurance
TAL Accelerated Protection Critical Illness Insurance pays out a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a specified medical condition like cancer, heart attack or stroke. The benefit will be paid even if you’re still able to work, and there are two types of plans available: Standard and Premier.
Both plans feature all the benefits listed below, but the Premier plan also includes:
- Advancement benefit: This benefit provides cover for immediate expenses if a certain event happens, for example if you lose hearing in one ear or are diagnosed with partial Alzheimer’s Disease.
- Female critical illness benefit: This benefit will be paid for conditions like pregnancy complications and congenital abnormalities.
- Needlestick benefit: This benefit is available if you work in certain occupations and suffer occupationally-acquired Hepatitis B or C.
Benefits featured in both the Standard and Premier Critical Illness Insurance plans include:
- Critical illness benefit: This benefit is a lump sum payment of up to $2 million for a range of conditions, such as heart attack, stroke, dementia, blindness, cancer and kidney failure.
- Paralysis support benefit: The lump sum payment is doubled to a maximum of $2,000,000 of the policyholder becomes paralysed.
- Death buy-back benefit: You can repurchase your Life Insurance after the payment of 100% of the critical illness benefit, paralysis support benefit or TPD benefit (if applicable). This benefit only applies if Critical Illness Insurance or TPD Insurance (if applicable) is attached or linked to Life Insurance.
Optional benefits on Critical Illness Insurance plans include:
- Critical illness reinstatement benefit: This lets you repurchase your Critical Illness Insurance after you’ve been paid a critical illness benefit, advancement benefit, needlestick benefit or female critical illness benefit.
- Double critical illness option: When Critical Illness Insurance is attached to Life Insurance, this benefit means that payment of the critical illness benefit will not reduce your Life Insurance and future premiums will be waived.
- Child’s critical illness option: Receive a lump sum payment if an insured child suffers a critical illness.
- Premium relief option: This option lets you waive your premiums if sickness or injury mean you are unable to work for at least three months.
- Business insurance option: This option lets you increase your Critical Illness Insurance without medical underwriting after a valid business event, such as an increase in your share of business ownership or an increase in the level of a business loan for which you are a guarantor.
How is Critical Illness Cover Different to Health Insurance?
TAL Accelerated Protection TPD Insurance
TAL Accelerated Protection TPD Insurance pays a lump sum benefit if you are totally and permanently disabled. Benefits of this type of insurance include:
- TPD benefit: A lump sum payment of up to $5 million if you become totally and permanently disabled.
- Accommodation benefit: TAL will reimburse the cost accommodation for your immediate family member of up to $250 per day if the policyholder is confined to bed more than 100km away from home.
TAL’s TPD Insurance policies also feature the following optional benefits:
- Death buy-back option: You can repurchase your Life Insurance after the payment of 100% of TPD Insurance. Only available when TPD Insurance is linked to Life Insurance.
- Double TPD option: Available when TPD Insurance is attached to life insurance, this benefit means that payment of the TPD benefit will not reduce your Life Insurance and future premiums will be waived.
- Premium relief option: This option lets you waive your premiums if sickness or injury mean you are unable to work for at least three months.
- Business insurance option: This option lets you increase your Critical Illness Insurance without medical underwriting after a valid business event, such as an increase in your share of business ownership or an increase in the level of a business loan for which you are a guarantor.
TAL Accelerated Protection Income Protection
Income Protection cover is designed to provide a replacement income when sickness or injury prevents you from working. It ensures you still have money coming in and you can keep on providing for your family when times are tough.
TAL offers three types of income protection policies: Standard, Premier and Optimal. In addition to the benefits offered under the Standard policy (listed further below), the Premier option includes features such as a child care benefit, a child’s critical illness benefit and a rehabilitation benefit. Benefits included in Standard and Premier policies include:
- Total disability benefit: A monthly payment that covers up to 75% of your regular ongoing income if you are totally disabled.
- Partial disability benefit: A monthly payment when you are only able to work in a reduced capacity due to sickness or injury.
- Death benefit: A lump sum payment of six times the benefit amount (up to $50,000) of the policyholder dies.
- Concurrent disability benefit: If disability results from separate injuries or illnesses, your benefit payment will be calculated according to the injury or illness that offers the highest payment.
- Recurrent disability benefit: If a disability occurs from the same or a related cause within 12 months of a claim ending, it is treated as a continuation of the original claim so no waiting period applies.
- Waiver of premium benefit: Your premiums are waived while you receive a payment for total or partial disability.
- Other benefits: These include an elective surgery benefit, an extended care benefit, and a blood-borne diseases benefit.
Optional benefits available on Standard and Premier policies include:
- Increasing claim option: This ensures your benefit payments keep pace with inflation.
- Accident benefit option: A proportion of your overall benefit amount is paid for each day you are injured if you are totally disabled for at least three consecutive days during the waiting period.
- Critical illness option: A lump sum payment of six times the benefit amount may be provided in addition to any total or partial disability payments for a range of conditions including cancer, heart attack and stroke. This will help cover the cost of medical treatment and expenses.
- Other options: These include a needlestick benefit, a retirement protection option and an option to protect against severe disability.
While the Standard and Premier policies include a monthly benefit payment that will cover up to 75% of your normal ongoing income, the Optimal plan can pay an increased benefit for the first six months of claim—this benefit is equal to 95% of your normal income.
Other features of the Optimal policy include a partial disability benefit, a waiver of premium benefit, a death benefit, a recurring claim benefit, an inflation protection benefit and a blood-borne diseases benefit.
TAL Accelerated Protection Business Expenses Insurance
Accelerated Protection Business Expenses Insurance offers a monthly payment to reimburse the regular fixed operating expenses of your business if sickness or injury mean you are unable to work. These expenses include things like accounting fees, advertising, electricity, interest payments and leasing costs.
Standard features of this type of policy include:
- Total disability benefit: A monthly payment to reimburse your fixed business operating expenses if you’re totally disabled.
- Partial disability benefit: Same as above but for partial disability.
- Death benefit: A lump sum payment of three times the monthly benefit to a maximum of $50,000 if the policyholder dies.
- Payment extension benefit: The payment period is extended if the policyholder is still totally or partially disabled after one year and a sum of 12 times the benefit amount has not been paid.
- Lease extension benefit: If you’re still disabled after receiving benefits for 12 consecutive months, the policy will help cover your lease costs.
- Loss of profits benefit: If you suffer a loss of profits after taking two months off work due to total disablement, your insurance will help cover your loss of profits when you return to work.
- Other benefits: These include an elective surgery benefit, an inflation protection benefit, a recurrent disability benefit and a waiver of premium benefit.
Optional benefits of this type of policy include:
- Accident benefit option: A proportion of your overall benefit amount is paid for each day you are injured if you are totally disabled for at least three consecutive days during the waiting period.
Why Consider TAL Life Insurance Protection Plans?
TAL is a trusted insurer with a long history in the insurance history. The company has been helping people get the insurance cover they need since 1869, and currently protects more than 2.5 million Australians.
TAL Life Insurance began life as the insurance company of the ordinary people with the backing of the New Zealand government. It has never forgotten its roots as it continues insuring the most vulnerable in the community who recognise it as being a friend not just a business.
As a specialist life insurance insurer, TAL has a range of policies to suit people from all walks of life and aims to help make the often confusing subject of life insurance more accessible to everyday Australians. The company’s core purpose is simple: to meet the life insurance needs of as many Australians as possible.
TAL offers customers certainty of cover, clearer communication, and convenient access online and over the phone. If you’re looking for a life insurance protection plan, TAL’s range of insurance products offer the security and peace of mind you need.
Simple and Straightforward Claims Process with TAL Life Insurance
TAL aims to make the claims process as easy and stress-free as possible. Before submitting your claim, remember that the process involved will differ depending on where you purchased your policy.
To submit a claim, follow these few simple steps:
- Inform TAL that you wish to make a claim by emailing or phoning them;
- TAL will then give you the forms you’ll need to complete your claim;
- Make sure you fill out all the forms you receive, as this will help us to assess your claim as quickly as possible. Return your completed claim forms and any supporting documentation to TAL via email or post;
- Once TAL has received your completed forms, a case manager will be appointed and will start to assess your claim. If your claim is approved, you can nominate to have your benefit paid into your bank account or you can receive a cheque.
The key Steps to a Successful life insurance claim
Breakdown of Claims Paid by TAL Life Insurance
- Total Claims Paid by TAL in 2012 - Total $580.4 million
- Total Claims Paid by TAL in 2011 - Total $565 million
Breakdown on Claims in 2011
- Life insurance - $300.4 million
- Income Protection and Business Expense insurance - $145.6 million
- Critical Illness insurance - $43.7 million
- Total and Permanent Disability insurance - $75.3 million
TAL is committed to helping its policyholders during their times of need so you know you’ll have support when you need it most. In 2012 alone, TAL paid out $580,390,644 in total claims benefits to its customers. 47% of those payments were for life insurance, 33% for income protection insurance (including business expense insurance, total and permanent disability insurance accounted for 13%, while critical illness insurance claims made up a 7% share.
TAL Life Insurance Australia: Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is a waiting period?
- A. A waiting period is the amount of time before your insurance benefits begin to accrue.
Q. My income protection claim has been approved. When will I start receiving benefit payments?
- A. You will start receiving payments one month after your waiting period ends.
Q. Can I receive other income while I’m receiving income protection benefits?
- A. Yes, if your policy includes a Partial Disability Benefit clause, which allows you to receive some salary continuance benefits as well as your income if you are totally disabled.
Q. Do I pay tax on my benefit payments?
- A. Any benefits you receive from your policy are usually assessable for tax purposes. Check with an accountant or the Australian Tax Office to be sure.
Q. What is an Independent Medical Examination and why have I been asked to attend one?
- A. TAL may ask you to attend an Independent Medical Examination to help assess your claim. Your case manager will give you plenty of notice of any examination so you can make travel arrangements. TAL pays for this examination and will also reimburse you for all reasonable travel costs.
Q. What can I do if I don’t agree with TAL’s decision about my claim?
- A. In cases where there is not enough evidence to support a claim being approved, the case is put before TAL’s Decision and Review Committee for further consideration before a final decision is made.
If you don’t agree with TAL’s final decision, you can write to its Complaints Resolution Department and ask that your case be independently reviewed.
