Insurer MetLife has won a tender worth $45 million in premiums to provide life insurance cover to Prime Super's members for the next three years.
This win marks the continuation of a 14-year insurance partnership between MetLife and the $917 million industry fund for rural and regional Australian workers.
According to Prime Super chief executive Lachlan Baird, MetLife nabbed the contract after a tender process that was aimed at testing the market and included a number of leading insurance providers.
"The insurance tenders we received were all very competitive, however it was MetLife's competitive insurance scales combined with their understanding of our members' needs, their technology offering and their commitment to member education that really impressed us," Baird said.
While details of the new insurance policy are still in negotiation, Baird expects members to benefit from increases in death and total and permanent disability benefits of between 10 per cent to 30 per cent, dependent on age.
Members with income protection cover could also see a 40 per cent improvement in cover.
There will be no increase in premiums for members, Baird said.
MetLife's offering will also provide Prime Super members with an online customer toolkit, which includes online underwriting.
"This was really important to us because we are always looking for ways to make it easier for our members to do business with us. We believe that online underwriting will provide members with an easy to use, streamlined application process," Baird said.
MetLife head of institutional business Richard Anderson said it was gratifying that this technology offering was one of the factors that set it apart from the competitors.
"We are in the unique position of being able to leverage off the technology developed by our parent company in the United States. This means that what we've been able to save in the IT development costs can be passed directly to Prime Super members," he said.
The contract has been signed for three years and has a three-year renewal option.
