Financial advisers can now arrange risk-only superannuation cover for their customers in a fraction of the time thanks to market leading enhancements announced by NEOS Life today.

The enhancements support the NEOS Super Plan, which is a risk-only superannuation product that allows customers to fund their retail life insurance policy from their superannuation fund.

In an industry first, NEOS instantly validates the identity of a customer and matches their superannuation account when they apply for cover via a NEOS Super Plan. The result is a significant reduction in rollover rejections and much faster completions which were already market leading, with 95% of policies in force in less than five days since launch1.

This follows the successful integration of NEOS systems with an ACORD2 compliant insurance gateway. It uses an event driven messaging platform with the most secure data encryption available in Australia to deliver real-time data between NEOS, regulators, superannuation funds and the banking system. This results in rapid, error-free transaction processing for new policies, refunds, claims or commissions, ensuring Australians are protected and advisers are paid faster than ever before.

Commenting on the achievement, NEOS Managing Director, Brett Yardley, said he was delighted to be improving efficiencies for advisers and making it easier and faster for Australians to protect their lives.

“We’re committed to embracing innovations that deliver significantly better outcomes for advisers and the customers they serve.

“Historically, advisers selling risk-only super policies have regularly encountered delays due to high rejection rates from superannuation funds because the member or fund were incorrectly identified. This often happens when a person changes their name after getting married or divorced, or there are a number of similarly named funds managed by the superannuation product issuer.

“Thanks to checks built into our process, we can fix these errors before sending the rollover requests to the other fund and, with our fully automated super system, we can put the policy in-force, pay claims, process refunds, and pay adviser commissions in a fraction of the time.

“This all means more Australians can get access to valuable insurance coverage as fast as possible, as well as improving an adviser’s cash flow position, at a time when their margins are being squeezed.”

1 NEOS Super Plan monthly rollover reports, September 2018 to June 2019
2 ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) is the global standards-setting body for the insurance and related financial services industries. ACORD facilitates fast, accurate data exchange, and efficient workflows through the development of electronic standards, standardised forms, and tools to support their use.