For customers who are experiencing domestic or family violence, there are a number of things to consider in relation to a life insurance policy. These include, but are not limited to:
• Holding and changing a joint policy
• Beneficiaries and the payment of claims
• Updating correspondence preferences
Holding and changing a joint policy
In the event of domestic or family violence, you may no longer feel comfortable being on a joint insurance policy with the person committing the violence. If this happens to you, we encourage you to contact us. Whilst we cannot make changes to the policy or policy ownership without the consent of the policy owner/s we may be able to assist by explaining what options are available to you. Or, if you decide to do so, we can let you know how you may apply to take out your own new policy on a current on-sale product. We can also connect you with services that may be able to assist you.
Under joint ownership arrangements in a life insurance policy, both owners need to agree to any changes that are made to the policy. The policy owner (or joint policy owners, where the policy is held jointly with more than one policy owner) controls what changes can be made to a policy and policy owners do not need consent from the life insured (where the life which is insured is not one of the owners on the policy).
In the case where a negotiation of separating or assigning jointly owned life insurance policies is unsuccessful, the Federal and Family Courts can make orders to specify how a policy is to be administered or varied.
Beneficiaries and the payment of claims
It is important to understand and re-evaluate the beneficiary of an insurance policy when experiencing family or domestic violence. A beneficiary is the person who will receive a benefit under the policy. Keeping beneficiary nominations up to date ensures loved ones are taken care of financially if something unfortunate were to happen.
Beneficiaries can be easily updated through Insuranceline Access or member of the Insuranceline team can guide you through this in a secure and private way. If you have a life insurance policy through your superannuation fund, contact your fund for information about how to update your beneficiaries.
Updating correspondence preferences
The safety of our customers is paramount, which is why when you correspond with us, your privacy and safety are our top priority. It is important that you keep your correspondence preferences with Insuranceline up to date to help ensure that we only ever communicate with the people and through the channels that you have elected.
