The last year has been a tumultuous one for the financial services industry, weathering Parliamentary Inquiries and the Royal Commission, which has brought necessary attention to default insurance, or insurance inside super.

With the spotlight on the category, growing debate among policymakers, and reforms that will impact members cover, you might expect public awareness of insurance inside super to have increased, but in fact its remained flat. 

Our second annual Insurance Inside Super Research shows fewer working Australians are aware they have access to Death, Total Permanent Disablement (TPD) and Income Protection (IP) cover through their super fund, and even fewer know what cover they have. In reality they’re likely to have cover, but are just not aware of what cover they have.

We know insurance inside super is built-in protection that serves an incredibly important purpose and has been a safety net for many Australians when the unexpected occurs. We want Australians to know it exists, why it exists and to be confident to make choices about their cover.

Super funds play a significant role in the relationship members have with their insurance inside super. Many members first find out about their cover via their fund, and have a lot of trust in their fund to help them navigate the cover they need. We need to do more to ensure members are informed about insurance inside super as opposed to “discovering” they have this type of insurance.

MetLife works closely with super fund partners, to help members understand that insurance inside super exists and the cover they have. But more needs to be done to ensure Australians are aware of the benefits, are actively thinking about the cover they need and modifying their policies to ensure they have the right cover.

However, we cannot achieve this broad awareness without a commitment across the industry to collaborate and to make insurance inside super simple. Our research suggests that there are benefits for both members and their super funds when Australians are more engaged  with insurance inside super.

A representative survey of 1,506 working Australians, aged between 18 and 64, was conducted across all super funds in market. To be included in the sample respondents had to: 

Rice Warner research¹ suggests there are more than 13.5 million separate insurance policies held through super funds, so its likely many have cover without even knowing it. 

Of those who were aware insurance inside super exists and that they had cover:

• Nearly 40% of the sample were not aware they could modify the level of their insurance cover 
• More than 1 in 4 (28%) said they were not aware they are charged a premium for insurance inside super and for those that were aware, only 34% knew the premium amount being charged.
• More than half (57%) don’t know how to calculate how much cover they need
• 27% first became aware of having insurance via their super fund, while 14% were alerted when they discovered premiums coming out of their account. This discovery can lead to members cancelling cover if they don’t understand its value and benefits.

Communications have the  power to inform and inspire, if  you get the message and delivery right. 

With the introduction of the Federal Government’s new Protecting Your Super Package, members are already receiving a lot of information about changes to their super. It’s important to cut through the noise and we have developed four tips for doing just that.

Members want more frequent communication about their insurance inside super.

85% want communication at least every year 

52% want communication at least every six months 

Interestingly, younger members prefer more regular contact. 91% of 18-29 year-olds prefer to be contacted every year (71% every six months), compared to 79% of the 50-64 age group wanting contact at least every year (39% every six months).

While we want all Australians checking their cover more often, we know key life stages, or ‘moments’ are a trigger for people to check their protection.