Funeral Insurance Outstanding Value Award Winners for 2018

After researching and rating 18 products from 14 providers for the 2018 Funeral Insurance Star Ratings, Canstar has revealed four winners of the Funeral Insurance Outstanding Value Award.

Canstar’s Funeral Insurance Star Ratings uses a sophisticated and unique ratings methodology that compares both cost and features across funeral insurance products. Canstar star ratings represent a shortlist of products, enabling consumers to narrow their search to products that have been assessed and ranked.

After crunching the numbers, Canstar has announced the following four recipients of the 2018 Funeral Insurance Outstanding Value Award:

• APIA
• GIO
• Suncorp Life
• Insuranceline

Funeral Insurance Outstanding Value Winners – 2018

Each product reviewed for Canstar’s Funeral Insurance Star Ratings was awarded points for its comparative pricing and positive features. A product’s total score is equal to its price score plus its features score.

The following products were assessed as offering outstanding value to consumers.

APIA, GIO and Suncorp Life

The Suncorp Group – APIA, GIO and Suncorp Life – offer similar products and as such were all awarded Canstar’s Outstanding Value Award for funeral insurance in 2018. Their award-winning performance was driven by their market-leading feature suite across all profiles. Features of note included a maximum terminal illness benefit of $15,000, offered by less than a third of the market.

Other reasons these providers won include:

• A premium cap at age 85
• 10% refund of premiums paid offered after three years of policy inception
• 10% refund of premiums paid every three years of policy continuing after the initial refund.

The table below displays a snapshot of these providers’ funeral insurance products, sorted alphabetical order. The results and Star Ratings shown are based on a non-smoking female aged 70+.

Insuranceline

This is the second year running Insuranceline’s Funeral Insurance Advantage product has been awarded Canstar’s Outstanding Value Award for funeral insurance. Its win was driven by a highly competitive performance across the five age groups considered, including leading performance for the 70s plus market. In addition to a highly competitive premiums-paid structure, Insuranceline also offered market-leading applications and claims features including:

• the ability to claim without comprehensive documentation
• online, post and telephone policy application facilities
• immediate cover commencements and a 30-day cooling off period.

Insuranceline’s product Funeral Insurance Advantage also has a sum-insured premium cap, meaning the policy holder will not have to pay premiums after their total premiums paid equals the sum insured amount.

The table below displays a snapshot of InsuranceLine’s funeral insurance products, sorted by Star Rating (highest to lowest). The results and Star Ratings shown are based on a non-smoking male aged 70+.

How does Canstar compare funeral insurance?

Canstar weighted products’ price and features scores to arrive at a total score – price was given a 75% weighting while features occupied the remaining 25%.

These weightings were assessed against 20 consumer profiles based on age, gender and smoking status, with a star rating assigned for each profile:

• Early fifties (50-54)
• Late fifties (55-59)
• Early sixties (60-64)
• Late sixties (65-69)
• Seventies plus (70-75)

A non-smoker was defined as a person who hadn’t smoked for 12 months.

Pricing

The pricing score was comprised of two components: the total premiums paid (90%) and the benefit payout (10%).

Features

Canstar considered the following features when allocating a feature score:

• Benefits and options:
• Terminal illness
• Accidental death
• Other
• Standard company terms
• Exclusions
• Indexation
• Discounts
• Application and claims
• Claims process
• Applications process
• Support
• Policy terms
• Premiums
• Coverage terms
• Sum insured
• Payment options

To be eligible for Canstar’s Funeral Insurance Star Ratings and Award, a policy must be a level premium product and available to:

• The general public
• Australian citizens or permanent residents
• Those aged 50 and above

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