TAL insists profit sharing rebates go back to fund members

29 August 2017
| By Mike |
image
image
expand image

Australia’s largest group life insurer has insisted to a Parliamentary Committee that any profit-sharing rebates it pays to superannuation funds have been used to benefit members.

TAL chief executive, Brett Clark has told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services that his company insists that the rebates are used to benefit members and that TAL has the right to audit that outcome.

He said that best practice from TAL’s point of view “is that where these rebates are paid back to superannuation trustees they are used only for the benefit of members”.

“Indeed, in the contracts that we have with our superannuation partners, we demand it and we contract with our superannuation fund partners that the return of these proceeds will only be used for the benefit of members of the fund,” he told the committee.

“We also believe that best practice for the superannuation trustees is that they have a board-approved policy for managing and distributing these rebates and that they are also transparent and disclosed,” Clark said.

“APRA requires superannuation funds to have an insurance management framework documented as part of SPS 250. We would also say that best practice for funds is to have their practice for dealing with these rebates documented as part of that APRA [Australian Prudential Regulation Authority] guideline.”

Describing the working of the profit sharing rebates, Clark said that where premiums for group insurance arrangements were in excess of the claims paid and the expenses required to run the group insurance arrangements the excess was returned to the superannuation fund.

He said there were a number of reasons for this, including providing price stability to the market.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

10 months 1 week ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

10 months 2 weeks ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

10 months 2 weeks ago

The profit-to-member super funds are officially operating as a merged entity, set to serve over half a million members. ...

1 day 19 hours ago

Super Review announced 21 winners at the annual Super Fund of the Year Awards, including the recipient of the prestigious Fund of the Year Award....

2 days 10 hours ago

APRA data shows the CFMEU accounted for 28 per cent of super fund industrial contributions, with the shadow treasurer calling for a prompt investigation into the payments...

3 days 14 hours ago