AMP offers insurance deal to stem flow of customers to bank KiwiSaver schemes

AMP is rolling out a new product which it says will "change the insurance market in New Zealand", and stem the flow of KiwiSaver members moving to banks.

Thursday, March 24th 2016, 6:00AM 1 Comment

by Susan Edmunds

The KiwiSaver provider says it is offering advisers a golden retention and upsell opportunity.

AMP is set to launch an insurance bundle called AMP Essentials on April 11. The offer will run until early June.

AMP said it was a way to make personal insurance more affordable and accessible and stem the flow of KiwiSaver members moving to banks. It said it would also generate a pipeline of leads for advisers to upsell.

An AMP Essentials policy can be issued online without medical checks, to AMP KiwiSaver members who answer two underwriting questions.

Eighteen- to 30-year-olds can get temporary disablement cover up to $2083 a month for a year, trauma cover of $10,000 and life cover of $100,000 for $11.

Those aged 31 to 39 would pay $12 for the same amounts and customers aged 40 to 47 would pay $22. The price increases for older customers and the policies only cover people aged up to 60.

Under AMP Essentials Plus, customers would get twice as much life and trauma cover and $2916 a month in temporary disablement for $17 if they are 18 to 30, $20 if they are 31 to 39 and $38 if they are 40 to 47.

“The threat of losing customers to banks is very real,” AMP said.

“AMP Essentials offers you a practical way to stem the flow of exits. Because it’s a benefit available only to AMP KiwiSaver Scheme customers, if a customer leaves the scheme, they lose their AMP Essentials cover. This means it may not be in the best interest of the client to simply switch without a comprehensive review.”

The offer is only available to AMP KiwiSaver Scheme members aged between 18 and 60 years old at March 21 this year.

It is not available to customers who join the scheme after 21 March 2016.

Last year, 84% of members who transferred out of the AMP KiwiSaver Scheme, went to the retail banks.

The offer ends on June 9.

Tags: AMP KiwiSaver