Tower and Westscheme renew group life deal

Jim Minto

Tower Australia has renewed its group life insurance mandate with Westscheme Superannuation Fund, reaffirming its belief that retail and group life insurance can be successfully offered by the same insurer.

Under the terms of the deal with Westscheme, a Western Australia-based industry superannuation fund with 178,000 members, Tower will continue to provide its members with life insurance cover for at least the next three years.

Jim Minto, managing director of Tower Australia, said: “This continues a nine-year partnership with Westscheme, which has seen both parties work closely together to produce the best result for Westscheme members.

“Tower has been able to pass on an improved benefit scale to all members, broaden eligibility criteria and offer extended total and permanent disability cover.”

Tower strengthened its exposure to the group life insurance space in March last year when it acquired PrefSure, and the WestScheme deal is expected to further silence critics who thought running group life insurance and retail life insurance concurrently could cause conflict.

“Tower, as an independent life insurance specialist focused wholly on the Australian market, believes both group and retail life protection can work together for the benefit of the Australian community,” Minto said.

He said it was clear more Australians were accessing life insurance protection through their superannuation schemes and that trustees were responding to that development.

“Overall, the life insurance gap in Australia is continuing to grow with increased levels of personal debt, but the message to protect individual and family wealth when adverse circumstances arise is being more widely accepted in the community.”

Westscheme chief executive Howard Rosario said he expects the partnership to provide its members with a better safety net.