ING Australia has upgraded the range of Life Insurance products and improved the underwriting process for their flagship Life Insurance product – OneCare.

ING One Care Life Insurance products are only available through a financial planner and is not available via ING direct website. The biggest improvement for their Income Protection Insurance is the definition of total disability that you will be assessed at claim time.

The previous Income Protection Insurance definition would be applied to people who were completely unable to perform one or more work related duties. The new two tiered definition includes this but also applies to people who are unable to work a total of 10 or more hours per week.

This is great news for self employed clients, given that they can still work 10 hours a week for example taking phone calls whilst still recovering at home. Taking a phone call would be considered work under most duties based Income protection policies and under most policies you will have failed to qualify for total disability claim.

But not at ING, you will now be considered total disabled and your full monthly income protection benefit will be paid out. That’s great news!

The other great news is that the self employed can still received their business income for a full 6 months and their monthly Income Protection benefit will not be offset.

The change was made with a focus on the self-employed clients. These changes should help self employed claimants concentrate on recovering and return to work more quickly in a phased-in process.

In summary the main features and benefits upgraded for ING Income Protection Insurance are as follows:

  • Enhancement to the disability definition within ING’s Income Secure product, now including a new 10 hour disability definition
  • Broader income protection cover for mining, oil and gas-related occupations – more than 70 new eligible occupations in these industries, including quarry workers and driller operators
  • Living Expense Cover – has increased its maximum sum insured to a $5000 monthly benefit to age 80 (ideal for homemakers and those unable to qualify for traditional income protection)
  • Standard underwriting now available for farmers seeking age 65 Income Secure benefit
  • Removal of expiry of interim cover – previously 90 days

In summary the main features and benefits upgraded for ING Life Insurance are as follows:

  • $3 million maximum sum insured for Trauma Cover with Extended Needle Stick Benefit. Most companies only go up to $2m
  • Earlier commencement of the 12 month waiting period for cover buyback
  • Removal of expiry of interim cover – previously 90 days
  • A new optional extra allows people who suffer particular trauma events to reclaim 100 per cent of their income rather than the usual 75 per cent for up to two years.

Other improvements from product; technology and Underwriting include:

  • Database update of the OneCare Express medical practitioner lookup
  • Faster navigation for online applications through OneCare Express making it easier for Financial Planners to lodge papaerpplications
  • Reduced underwriting delays through use of freeform text fields through OneCare Express

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