Royal Commission

Life/Risk

Did TAL incentivise managers to deny claims?

TAL has today faced rigorous questioning by the Royal Commission as to whether case managers and senior staff were incentivised to deny claims as quickly as possible....

Life/Risk

TAL investigators gathered info under false pretences, RC told

Multiple TAL case managers appeared to have instructed investigators to attend hospitals and police stations under false pretences as part of what appeared to be a firm-w...

Life/Risk

RC finds TAL went on “fishing expeditions” to protect bottom line

The Royal Commission has heard of TAL’s invasive investigation methods for the purpose of avoiding the approval of income protection policies on the basis of non-disclosu...

Life/Risk

CommInsure admits to misleading advertising

The Royal Commission has heard that CommInsure ran misleading and deceptive ads, with Commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC suggesting its reprimand by ASIC for doing so was ligh...

Life/Risk

Cancer patient’s claim denied despite medical support: RC

The Royal Commission has heard that a CommInsure customer was denied a claim following breast cancer treatment, despite two doctors confirming to the insurer that her pro...

Life/Risk

CommInsure stuck to outdated definition despite risk to customers

CommInsure was aware that its definition of “heart attack” for insurance claims was outdated and could potentially result in the rejection of otherwise legitimate claims ...

Life/Risk

CBA not “frank and open” in dealings with FOS, RC told

CBA has acknowledged that it was not frank and open in a dispute with the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Royal Commission has been told....

Life/Risk

Freedom admits to dodgy policy retention practices

Freedom’s retention practices make it “unnecessarily difficult to cancel [insurance] policies” with just 28.5 per cent of customers trying to cancel funeral insurance cov...

Life/Risk

Insurer hit with 72 attempted cancellations daily

Freedom received 72 cancellation calls a day from customers for its funeral insurance policy over a 13-month period, with 13 per cent of those calls coming during the fir...

Life/Risk

Freedom lambasted at RC for “inappropriate, highly aggressive” sales practices

Freedom chief operating officer Craig Orton has admitted to the Royal Commission that aggressive insurance sales practices within his organisation led to poor customer ou...

Life/Risk

Freedom ends sales practice right before RC appearance

Freedom ended dubious sales practices for four insurance products just days before appearing before the Royal Commission, then failed to disclose this information to the ...

Life/Risk

RC hears from victim of dubious sales call

With insurance sales practices proving a focus of the Royal Commission’s current hearings, the Commission has heard of how Freedom sold a disabled man funeral insurance a...

Life/Risk

RC points to flaws in insurance rules

The Royal Commission has pointed to flaws and inconsistencies in the regulatory environment around life insurance, including that there is no penalty capable of being imp...

Life/Risk

Clearview details breaches of anti-hawking law

In a hearing littered by admissions of wrongdoing by Clearview, the Royal Commission has heard the insurer’s chief risk officer, Gregory Martin, detail how the firm breac...

Life/Risk

“Downgrading” life/risk products under fire at RC

The practice of offering “downgraded” life insurance products has come under the spotlight at the Royal Commission, with Clearview questioned over its practice of offerin...