NGS Super signals increased premiums

Super funds should expect 30-40 per cent increases in group premiums when tendering insurance arrangements within the next two or three years, according to NGS Super chief executive Anthony Rodwell-Ball.

Two of the largest Australian super funds, AustralianSuper and REST Industry Super, have already increased the cost of insurance — in one case by 38 per cent — of their total and permanent disability (TPD).

NGS Super, which has put its insurance arrangements to tender, said it had been warned to expect the price hike off the back of increased insurance claims for disability and a reinsurance market that was slowly drying up — as evidenced by the Reinsurance Group of America's withdrawal from the local market.

Rodwell-Ball said insurance claims for TPD and income protection had been rising for the last 12-24 months. Any fund looking to renegotiate insurance arrangements would have to wear the cost of the "new normal" in group insurance.