This year, we have seen welcome growth in the life insurance market. While the industry has faced its challenges, green shoots are appearing, and they highlight the potential for growth to give Australians the confidence and the protection they need for their loved ones. Total market premiums in-force have stayed steady at $18.2b, with total customer growth and lapse rates in particular market segments putting downward pressure on overall premium growth. (NMG Total Market RDM, June 2024).

Growth in the retail market

In retail advised insurance, we’ve seen a stabilisation in adviser numbers and an overall improvement in productivity and adviser experience. As a result, market retail new business has grown 10%.

We expect to see even more growth in retail new business as adviser productivity improves, and customers see the value in life insurance. Positively, over the same period, our new business volumes grew by 19% thanks to the hard work of our teams and adviser partners (NMG Total Market RDM, Retail Advised New Business, R12m June 2023 vs. R12m June 2024).

Group insurance opportunities

Group insurance continues to play a core role in the insurance picture by providing access to default cover though super. Supporting Australians to ensure they have sufficient life insurance will continue to be an area of focus, as well as emphasising the value to group scheme members. We’ll continue to support our current and future super partners in protecting their members and enhancing member experiences.

Advice reforms

New growth pathways remain critical to helping more Australians and the sustainability of the industry overall. The inherent need for protection from customers remains, and solving for demand in the future will evolve. We’re continuing to focus on how we can assist our current and future customers in retirement as well as help younger customers on their protection journey.

To this end, the past year has seen some positive changes in the advice and retirement income landscape with the promise of simpler advice offerings. We welcome the passage of tranche one of the Government’s Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) legislation supporting advice fee deductions.

Enhanced digital experiences

Over the past 18 months, our focus has been to create customer centric insurance experiences for our customers. Our new customer portal, launched to trial cohort of customers in 2024, is a premium, intuitive digital experience which empowers customers to confidently self-serve and manage their cover with us. We’re planning to expand this to a larger cohort of customers in 2025.

Our co-design approach to digital customer experience is to put customers at the heart of everything we do. We collaborate with customers and blend their unique insights with our insurance expertise to craft impactful customer centric digital experiences.

2025 and beyond

Innovation in claims experiences

We believe innovation is key to delivering exceptional customer service, especially during claim time, a critical moment when our customers need us most. We’ve embraced intelligent technologies to enhance and simplify the claims process, speeding up our processing while remaining empathetic and transparent, placing customers at the centre of everything we do.

Mental health

Mental health will also be a focus for the industry in coming years. The KPMG Australia’s Mental Health Check Up report highlighted an unprecedented 732% increase in mental health Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) claims in 30-40 year-olds over the past decade.

Not only does this demonstrate the increasing need and complexity of mental ill health across all cohorts but it also illustrates the vital role insurance will need to play, not only as an essential pillar of the social safety net, but also as a support structure in empowering their recoveries.

Reforming retirement

Looking ahead to 2025, the Government’s reforms to the retirement phase of superannuation means the retirement market is well placed to develop in the coming years, allowing financial service organisations to better support those preparing for and in retirement.

The Government’s focus on enhancing independent guidance and resources, improving innovative income stream regulations, developing best practice principles and ensuring transparency of products will create further opportunity and innovation in the retirement market, and support better outcomes for retirees.

Advice Reforms and engaging younger generations

It's time that we recognise this younger cohort of consumers. Too often discussions are focussed primarily on 55-65 year-olds. Generations of Millennials and Generation Z, who themselves will also retire, are overlooked.

Without reform, these generations will have fewer options to address their increasingly complex financial, health and wellbeing needs.

That’s why we’re looking forward to a year where we build consensus as an industry, unifying consumers and decision-makers behind a vision and reform agenda for delivering affordable, accessible and appropriate insurance.

We welcome and support the second tranche of the Albanese Government’s Advice Reforms, announced recently by Minister Stephen Jones MP. The proposed changes simplify the financial advice framework to provide Australians with the advice they need.

What’s next for MLC Life Insurance?

I am excited about what lies ahead in 2025. With the expected merger of Resolution Life Australasia and MLC Life Insurance to become Acenda, we intend to create one of the largest life insurers in Australia.

Serving around 2 million customers and partners when the merger is completed, Acenda will leverage MLC Life Insurance’s “Best in Claims” philosophy and award winning Vivo health and wellness offering, with Resolution Life’s advanced digital solutions and retirement product suite to continue to meet the evolving needs of our customers.

If you thought 2024 was big, wait for next year! I look forward to continuing to see our life insurance industry create protection and security for millions of Australians in their moments of need. Acenda will be an important and leading part of that journey.

Thank you for your support over the past year and I wish you a happy, relaxing and safe holiday season.

Jane McGovern
Chief Customer and Strategy Officer