Over the past five years, Michael*, a 66-year-old from Sydney has developed some chronic health challenges.
In 2021, he experienced a mild stroke, impacting his daily life including his movement and coordination. In addition, since 2017, he has dealt with long-standing sleep apnoea and is unable to tolerate the CPAP treatment. Recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, he manages this, and also takes medication for high blood pressure.
Michael has two adult sons, aged 20 and 22 years, both of whom have moved out of home and are living independent lives as working adults. Michael has some savings, which he has put away to assist his sons with a house deposit when they are ready to buy their own home.
With the changes in his health and some savings put away to assist his sons, Michael decided to take an early retirement in 2021 to focus on his health and well-being. Fortunately, Michael has held $1.2 million in life cover on standard rates since 2008. Michael’s policy is 5% indexed, and he is a non-smoker.
However, cost of living pressures and his change in circumstances are making Michael’s life insurance premiums unaffordable. As he is struggling with his home repayments – which are currently 30 days in arrears – he decides to cancel his policy.
When letting his adviser know of his decision to cancel his life insurance policy, his adviser introduces iExtend and co-ownership as an option.
The option for iExtend to pay all the premiums on the co-owned life policy in exchange for his beneficiaries to receive a minimum of a 10% of the claim payout amount, plus indexation, was attractive to him as he would like to bolster the financial help he provides for his adult sons in the future – whether it be a healthy-sized deposit for their own homes or a sizeable payment towards their mortgages.
Michael was delighted to be presented with the Extend option by his adviser, who talked through the iExtend’s qualification criteria and practicalities of what it could mean for him and his sons. He was offered the iExtend Life Co-ownership Arrangement and happily remained a client of his adviser.
To find out more about iExtend and how it may provide another option when cancelling seems the only option available, reach out to your local Distribution Manager.
* The content within this case study serves as an educational and illustrative example. To ensure confidentiality, certain details such as names and health conditions have been altered.
If you need assistance, please get in touch with us today. We communicate clearly and in a language you can understand. Our dedicated team will devote their full attention to your case.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) are part of our process to address common concerns, questions and objections that our licensees and their advisors may have in relation to iExtend and the iExtend Co-Ownership Arrangement.
iExtend
iExtend is a private company formed by a group of like-minded people who saw an opportunity to help life insurance policyholders retain an interest in their unaffordable (yet valuable) life insurance cover. iExtend aims to ‘give something back’ to policyholders who have value in their policy but have made the decision to cancel (reduce) their cover.
Policy cancellation
iExtend will only contemplate accepting life cover that the client has confirmed will otherwise be cancelled. If you believe your client and their policy may meet our acceptance criteria, you can simply inform the client that there is an alternative to policy cancellation.
Until such time as your client finally decides to cancel their life cover, iExtend in not an option. It is only when your client, after reviewing the future cost versus potential benefits decides to reduce their premium commitment by either fully or partially cancelling life cover, that it may be in your clients Best Interest to suggest that a co-ownership arrangement with iExtend may be available as a viable alternative to cancellation.
iExtend does not provide financing facilities. It is an investor, not a lender. Where your client elects to retain a portion of their life cover, it is their responsibility to fund their share of the premiums.
Co-ownership
Under an iExtend Co-Ownership Arrangement, iExtend accepts policy ownership and the ongoing financial risk, paying future premiums on the co-owned portion of the policy while committing to share future claim benefits on that co-owned portion with the original policyholder on a sliding scale based on how long iExtend has been paying for the cover. The only premiums your client will pay is for cover they have chosen to retain rather than cancel.
Based on a liberal sliding scale, your client will always receive a percentage of any claim benefit paid on the policy (including future indexation, if indexation was elected), regardless of how much iExtend has paid to keep the cover in force since the ‘Policy Acquisition’ date.
There will always be a share of any future benefit claim that iExtend will see paid to your client so long as the Co-Ownership Arrangement is still in force. For instance, if your client transfers a policy to iExtend and passes away, say, ten (10) years later, even though they had not paid any premiums over that period, the Custodian will pay your client’s estate or nominated beneficiary an agreed share of the benefit as per the Co-Ownership Deed.
iExtend assesses whether it will invest in a policy by reference to certain risk management criteria, both internal and external. If responses to that criterion change over time, iExtend has the discretion to cancel its interest in any policy. If at any stage iExtend wishes to cancel or reduce the policy sum assured, iExtend guarantees to offer to transfer the ownership of the policy (with full rights) back to the original owner without requiring any form of compensation for all premiums paid by iExtend to that point.
Business support
If your client has decided to cancel some or all their cover, iExtend offers a range of material to the help clarify whether they should consider the possibility of entering a Co-Ownership Arrangement with iExtend or proceed with cancelling or reducing their life cover.
iExtend had developed an automated, web based B2B portal that will allow it to receive information electronically from advisers in an efficient and confidential manner that will be both time effective and satisfy all privacy & ethical requirements.
iExtend offers licensees complete business support, including access to our underwriting team, ad hoc education, training and masterclasses in policyholder pre-assessing and B2B technology.
iExtend’s website, iExtend.com.au, will be a valuable resource for any registered advisers to access thought leadership, information and ideas shared by some of Australia’s most successful risk advisers.
How it works?
No. Qualification for iExtend Co-Ownership relies on several factors including policy terms and conditions, premiums payable, sums assured and the health of the life insured. Information relating to these matters will need to be shared with iExtend (with the willing co-operation of all stakeholders) so that our assessment team can make a decision. Unfortunately, we cannot help everyone, and our focus is on helping those who stand to lose the most under the cancellation option.
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We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who work and live on this land.
The iExtend Life Co-Ownership Arrangement is issued by iExi Pty Ltd ABN 33 654 132 813 AFSL 555362 (iExtend). Please read our Financial Services Guide. The information provided in this document may contain general advice, but it does not take into account your client’s objectives, financial situation or needs.
Before acting on or making any decision in relation to the iExtend Life Co-Ownership Arrangement or any other financial product, you should consider the appropriateness of the information, having regard to your client’s personal circumstances, as well as the Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determination for the iExtend Life Co-Ownership Arrangement.
By using our website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and website Terms & Conditions.
5-Steps Onboarding Explained
1. Registration:
A two-step online initiated process, followed by an introduction to the compliance friendly, educational learning pathway FAQs so you can read and listen to our thought leaders on how the proposition was developed and some financial projection illustrations.
2. Quick Calc – Vetting a policy:
The Quick Calc gives you the opportunity to do multiple quotes to test potential transfer eligibility 24/7 with the ability to delete or save the outcome for up to 30 days. This calc supports advisers with their ‘best interest’ duties by providing an option to save and store the indicative decision with their client’s compliance records.
3. Pre-Assessment and Assessment- Qualifying a Policy:
The pre-assessment (application) builds on the Quick Calc decision with two more flexible self-service options:
Adviser Tip (Step 3)- Tele Health Questionnaire
To speed up the pre-assessment qualification for those clients with a real-time ‘Qualify’ or ‘Borderline’ indication from the Quick Calc or Pre-assessment Calc, we recommend downloading the iExtend Tele-health condition-specific or general health questionnaire located in our Resources folder. The signature free short questionnaires can make all the difference and help to fast track the pre-assessment finalisation, providing more information from the client on a specific health condition and prior to the requesting health information as set out in step 4 of the journey.
4. Health Information – Getting Policy Holders Approved Faster:
This pre-assessment phase moves to the final risk assessment phase in this step. iExtend has designed some practical options to support fast tracking of health information or requesting an independent specialist opinion. This alleviates the need to ask your clients to request medical records and reduces administration burden in chasing up medical reports.
iExtend has partnered with a market leading medical services platform provider to help manage all health information requests, including:
iExtend has built a Virtual Specialist Health Opinion Panel Network. This independent Panel allows iExtend to access imminent specialists across all fields of medicine and health sciences to obtain expert opinions within days.
5. Eligible:
Using all necessary policy, premium and health information garnered through the pre-assessment process explained in steps 1 to 4 and ensuring that all privacy and health consent authorities have been obtained, the policy will be assessed against iExtend’s stringent investment criteria.
If the policy is deemed to have met those criteria, the policy owner can apply for the Life Co-Ownership Arrangement. If accepted, the assignment transfer is completed with the Insurer. iExtend’s Custodian then maintains ownership of the policy throughout the Life Co-Ownership Arrangement.
We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who work and live on this land.
The iExtend Life Co-Ownership Arrangement is issued by iExi Pty Ltd ABN 33 654 132 813 AFSL 555362 (iExtend). Please read our Financial Services Guide. The information provided in this document may contain general advice, but it does not take into account your client’s objectives, financial situation or needs.
Before acting on or making any decision in relation to the iExtend Life Co-Ownership Arrangement or any other financial product, you should consider the appropriateness of the information, having regard to your client’s personal circumstances, as well as the Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determination for the iExtend Life Co-Ownership Arrangement.
By using our website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and website Terms & Conditions.
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