VIC UPDATE

From Don Glendinning

I hope you all enjoyed your summer. It feels like it flew past and wasn’t the usual, hot Victorian summer we’re used to. Although the kids are back to school, we added plenty of new memories during the holidays which I treasure the most. Our household is now excited for the footy season ahead, Easter and everything else that is Autumn.

The team in Victoria are well and truly back into the swing of things and looking forward to working with you to provide the protection your clients need.

Over the past few years at NEOS we’ve set a new standard for service in the IFA space.

In 2024 our focus will be to improve our technology on the NEOS Platform to make it more profitable for you to service your inforce book.

You may have seen the recent launch of our Policy Servicing Portal which now includes reporting and inforce quoting capability (see below for more details).

These are just the first of many enhancements to come. Our goal is always to make life easier for you and having the best technology is just another way we can do this.

We hope you were able to attend our recent executive cocktail function on 7 March where Harry Georges, Head of Sales and Adam Lister, Chief Operations Officer provided an update on the business. It was a great evening to connect over a drink and give you the opportunity to meet the rest of your dedicated NEOS team.

If there’s anything you feel we could do better, or if you have suggestions for how we can improve the NEOS Experience, please let us know.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership.

New features on the NEOS Platform

We’re pleased to launch the newest feature on the NEOS Platform – the Policy Servicing Portal. This will soon be home to all the functionality you need to manage your inforce portfolio with NEOS, across all insurers and products.

As more advisers move more of their business to the NEOS Platform, our aim is to make the Policy Servicing Portal a rich source of information and functionality that you can use to manage your business efficiently and profitably.

The first two features we’ve launched are Inforce quoting and Reporting. We’ll keep you informed about exciting developments as they happen.

Inforce quoting

You can now quote and apply for decrease alterations across both NEOS Protection and Encompass Protection. This includes sum insured reductions, increases in waiting periods, reduction of benefit periods, and removal of benefit options.

We’ve launched decreases first because these represent 80% of inforce quote requests we receive, however, increase quotes will be included soon. More details are available here.

Reporting

The new reporting functionality allows you to download reports about your portfolio, serviced by NEOS, across all the insurers we support – current and future.

Initial reports include:

Client benefit list
Inforce list
Lapse report
Renewal report
Overdue report
Commission report
Suspense report

You can then filter and generate reports based on different criteria, e.g. policy number, life insured or product, and download them as either PDF or CSV files.

And there’s more to come… We’re committed to improving the functionality of the NEOS Platform and Policy Servicing Portal, making your life easier and your business more profitable.

Our popular webinar series is back!

Please join us for an in-depth webinar where we’ll explain the latest enhancements to the NEOS Platform. Specifically, we’ll run through:

The Policy Servicing Portal – what it is and why it is needed
Reporting functionality
Inforce policy quoting.

Learn how you can use the NEOS Platform to improve the efficiency and profitability of your business.

Accredited for 0.50 CPD hours.

Registrations are filling fast, with only two dates currently available: Wednesday 27 March and Thursday 11 April.

Register here

Recent enhancements to NEOS Protection

You may have seen that we recently made some improvements to NEOS Protection.

Your clients can now access preferred premium rates, even when exclusions apply to their cover. And there are also improved limits for those with mandatory medical requirements.

Preferred rates eligibility

Your clients can now access preferred premium rates, even when exclusions apply to their cover.

We’re also making preferred rates available to clients who have been a non-smoker for at least one year, reduced from three years.

This applies to new applications effective from 16 February 2024. Please contact your underwriter about applications in suspense.

Improved limits for mandatory medical requirements

Clients applying for new Life, TPD, and/or Income Support Cover can now apply for higher sums insured, before mandatory medical requirements kick in. Further details are in the table below.

Cover type	Age	Maximum sum insured before mandatory medical requirements apply
Cover type	Age	Old limit	New limit
Income Support Cover	Younger than 45*	$12,500	$15,000
Life and TPD Cover	45-49*	$1,500,000	$2,500,000
	50-54	$1,000,000	$1,500,000
	55-59	$750,000	$1,000,000
	60 and older	$500,000	$750,000

*New limit previously applied only for clients with a BMI of less than 30.

This applies to new applications effective from 16 February 2024. Please contact your underwriter about applications in suspense.

Updated new business premiums

We’ve also updated premiums for new applications, providing better value for most of your clients. For more information about preferred life eligibility and mandatory medical requirement changes, please refer to the new Adviser Guide.

Changes to Encompass Protection

Effective 16 February 2024, level premiums will no longer be available on new Encompass Protection policies.

This change is only for new Encompass Protection policies, quoted from 16 February 2024. Existing customers with level premium policies are unaffected.

Existing quotes created before 16 February 2024 must be submitted by 12 April 2024, to avoid them expiring on the NEOS Platform. Policies already submitted and in suspense are unaffected.

An updated SPDS, Adviser Guide and SoA template are available from the Encompass Protection website.

We’re here to help. Please don’t hesitate to contact your BDM if you have any questions about this change or require further information.

New eligibility questions for tele-interviews

Effective 2 April 2024, we’ll be introducing new eligibility questions for tele-interview applications, for both NEOS Protection and Encompass Protection.

What’s changing?

All clients who wish to use the tele-interview process will be asked a new qualification question at the beginning of the process to determine whether the tele-interview should proceed.

They’ll be asked if they’ve had a heart attack or stroke in the previous 6 months, or if in the last 12 months they’ve used cocaine, amphetamines (MDMA, ice, ecstasy, ketamine) or opiates (heroin, methadone) other than as prescribed by a medical practitioner. If they answer Yes to this question, they wouldn’t be eligible for any cover, and therefore the tele-interview will not proceed.

You have the choice of asking this question yourself before submitting the tele-interview application.

We’ve also moved the height and weight question forward for tele-interview applications. If the client wouldn’t be eligible for any cover applied for based on their BMI, the tele-interview will not proceed.

Why is this change being made?

We want to save both your clients’ time, and our time, by avoiding a lengthy tele-interview process for clients who are ineligible for any cover applied for. Asking these simple questions early-on in the process enables this.

This change will also free up our tele-interview capacity to service more of your eligible clients, faster.

The NEOS colouring competition is back!

We’ve received great feedback on the NEOS colouring competition in the last two years, so we’re kicking it off again for the school holidays. The competition will open on Saturday, 30 March, with winners announced on Monday, 6 May. The competition terms and conditions can be found here.

We hope that your kids (or yourselves) join in on the fun. If not to create a masterpiece, then at the very least to give you some quiet time while we keep the kids busy.

How to enter

Select one of our designs.
Get creative, colour-in and submit your artwork.

Best of luck to all and thanks for joining in!

Death benefit nominations

If your clients have a binding death benefit nomination, it’s important they review this regularly, particularly if their personal circumstances have changed.

Both NEOS Protection and Encompass Protection binding death benefit nominations can be updated at any time by completing the relevant form available online.

NEOS Protection

Encompass Protection

LET US KNOW HOW WE'RE DOING

We want to ensure we’re providing solutions to make advisers’ lives easy. So, if there’s anything you feel we could be doing better or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve the NEOS Experience, please let us know.

While this edition of our newsletter has highlighted some of our recent achievements, we’re not too proud to think that we can’t be better.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or your BDM. We’d love to hear from you! And of course, positive feedback is also appreciated.

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