The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has welcomed the significant funding for resilience in the New South Wales government's 2024-25 Budget as a positive step for communities that should support efforts to improve insurance affordability.
New NRMA Insurance research has highlighted the mental health impacts of Australia's changing climate, with 80% of Australians surveyed stating they feel anxious about the impact of extreme weather.
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has outlined its support for strengthening the General Insurance Code of Practice (Code) in a number of areas, including financial hardship, customer vulnerability and claims handling.
TAL has appointed Ms Fiona Macgregor as group CEO and managing director, effective 1 October 2024. In her new role, she will be responsible for leading TAL through its ongoing strategy in the life insurance and retirement markets with a focus on digitally enabled market-leading customer and partner experience.
ProRisk has appointed Ms Naomi Stewart as relationship and business development manager. In her new role, she will be responsible for identifying new business opportunities, building strategic partnerships and nurturing client relationships to drive growth for all ProRisk insurance lines of business.
The Australian insurance sector will remain resilient as operating challenges ease in the next few years. Insurers will likely respond to moderating inflation with lower premium hikes, however profitability should remain sound across all segments, said S&P Global Ratings (S&P).
Australia is facing an advice accessibility crisis, according to Ms Christine Cupitt, CEO of the Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI), who said that life insurers want Australians to have more choice when it comes to getting advice about their life insurance needs.
The National Rural Health Alliance (the Alliance) has voiced concern over new extras offered by some of Australia's biggest health insurers with the claim that they will be an offset to high premiums.
Mental health conditions - including affective disorders, anxiety and substance abuse - were the most prevalent in Australia in recent years, with over 12m active cases between 2020 and 2022. This is followed by COVID-19, which has seen approximately 11m reported cases over a similar period, according to an analysis by Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich).
Chubb has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Catalyst Aviation Insurance, a Melbourne-based managing general agent that specialises in general aviation insurance for the Australia market.