Tower Australia has signed a lucrative deal with private health insurer nib Health Funds to sell its customers low-cost life insurance.
The nation’s fourth largest insurer has specifically developed a term life insurance product to be branded nib Value Life Insurance.
It will be administered through the Tower Accelerate platform.
Nib members will be able to buy up to $500,000 cover without a medical test. The product goes on sale via application on the nib website tomorrow.
The insurer will initially roll out the offering to 10,000 members of the Australian Securities Exchange-listed health insurer out of its database of 700,000.
Tower Australia managing director Jim Minto said the partnership with nib was its first retail offer through a health insurer.
The company believes the combination of health insurance and life insurance products helps bridge the underinsurance gap.
“Our aim is for Tower to be the premier business partner for distributors of life insurance products, so we are very excited about our partnership agreement with nib,” Minto said.
Nib is one of Australia’s fastest growing health funds.
“Customer research conducted during late 2006 revealed strong policyholder interest in nib offering more than just health insurance, and for many, the move to the provision of life insurance was seen as a natural alignment,” nib chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon said.
Allianz provides life risk protection to Medibank Private clients.
MBF has its own insurance solution, MBF Life, which provides income protection and term life cover up to $400,000.
